Venables Vibes: Oklahoma Looking Forward After Offensive Staff Changes

The Sooners must press on to battle No. 18 Ole Miss this weekend despite a mid-season coaching shakeup.

Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables / Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NORMAN — Brent Venables’ first press conference since dismissing offensive coordinator Seth Littrell on Tuesday sounded a lot like his Coaches Show on Monday night. 

He again touched on the decision to go in a different direction with the offense, and the changes he hopes to see with Joe Jon Finley now calling plays and Kevin Johns’ new, larger role with the quarterbacks. 

The Sooners (4-3, 1-3 SEC) will have to make rapid improvements to hang with No. 18 Ole Miss (5-2, 1-2) this weekend, but Venables will have to have one eye on the future for the rest of the year. 

Walk and Chew Gum

There’s nothing Oklahoma can do to bring in a new offensive coordinator right now or change personnel on the field. 

Finley, Johns and the rest of OU’s coaching staff will have to make do with the issues that have plagued the team through the first seven games.

“There's a lot that you obviously can't do right now. You focus on getting better right now,” he said. “We need to get better. You can always plan ahead without getting distracted. My main focus right now is getting us prepared for this week and putting together a good game plan in all three phases and getting our players a chance to be successful.”

But that doesn’t mean Venables won’t have an eye on the future as he tries to identify the coach he wants to lead his offense in 2025. 

“You multi-task, absolutely,” Venables said. “That's a huge priority and you let things take it's course.”

Oklahoma’s regular season will come to an end on Nov. 30 against LSU. 

After that, even if the Sooners are bowl bound, Venables will have the opportunity to get his new offensive coordinator in place to lock down the current recruiting class and attack the transfer portal to overhaul OU’s struggling offense. 

All Avenues Open

Jeff Lebby is a former Oklahoma Sooner.

Littrell and Finley are both former Sooners. 

All three of the coaches tasked with leading Venables’ offense have been intimately familiar with Norman and the program. 

Institutional knowledge never hurts, but it’s far from a requirement for Venables in the hiring process. 

“I could (not) care less about OU ties,” he said. “That doesn’t matter to me at all. I’ve hired some people who have had OU ties. I’ve hired people that had never been to the state of Oklahoma before.”

The defensive coaching staff, who has turned the Sooners’ defense from a putrid unit to the strength of the team, is proof positive of that for Venables. 

Safeties coach Brandon Hall has enjoyed success in his return to his alma mater, but defensive tackles coach Todd Bates, defensive ends coach Miguel Chavis, cornerbacks coach Jay Valai and defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Zac Alley have all excelled despite not having worked in Norman before. 

Venables will likely never publish a public short list for who he wants to lead the offense, and why would he, but even with the responsibility of game planning for the Rebels, the OU coach will already have names rattling around in his head.

“I’m aware of what’s going on in college football when it comes to people having success,” he said. 

Pressing Forward With Finley 

Finley will work closely with Johns and the rest of the offensive coaching staff to build this week’s game plan, but ultimately the play calling duties will fall to Finley.

Johns has called plays before, most recently last year at Duke, but Venables didn’t want him to have to learn all of the verbiage of the offensive system while also stepping into a larger role all within the space of a few days. 

That made the decision to hand the keys to Finley easy for Venables. 

“He's been around a lot of ball,” Venables said of Finley. “He's got great leadership skills, really effective communicator. He's very involved in every part of our program when it comes to the special teams and offense and certainly his tight end group.”

Finley had a large input under the old staff setup, but Venables said he’s excited to see what the change brings to the offense this week.

“He was a trusted resource before,” Venables said. “And again, I know the result isn't what anybody wanted, so it's easy to say, well, then, what's he gonna do? 

“But he's got great perspective and he's got a really sharp lens when he understands defense. And he's got good natural instincts as well with the game. I think that'll show itself to some degree. … Right now, we're in the middle of a year where we're not performing well. So everybody is under the microscope. 

“But we do have a good support system and a process in how we put together, again, daily practice and daily game plan, installation, and the different situationals and things of that nature. And so he'll play a major part in that, but so will other staff members as well, it'll be a collective effort.”

Oklahoma’s offense, led by starting quarterback Jackson Arnold, will take on Ole Miss’ talented defense on Saturday at 11 a.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.