Column: Why Oklahoma Football is Not Going in the Right Direction

The Sooners have been going in circles for three years, and while more improvement could be coming, the offense's sharp decline is a setback for the program moving forward.

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NORMAN — A lot of Oklahoma fans agree with football coach Brent Venables on one thing.

“I know at the end of the day, losing three straight really sucks,” Venables said this week. “It stinks.”

Yep. The coach and fan base see eye-to-eye on that one.

The Sooners are mired in a three-game losing streak, and it’s the second time under Venables that’s happened — after 24 years without such a hideous stain.

Oklahoma had become the shining city on a hill for college football programs looking to achieve consistent winning. In the Big 12 Conference, Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley combined for 14 league championships in 21 years. What other major college program can say that? Not Alabama, not Ohio State, not Michigan. Not Georgia, not Texas, and certainly not USC.

But here Venables sits, with a 20-14 head coaching record, just 3-5 against AP Top 25 teams, and three chances just ahead — at Missouri next week, Alabama in Norman the game after that, and at LSU on Nov. 30 — to make that record better or worse.

Venables’ career winning percentage is now .588. For comparison, Gary Gibbs’ was .652 (44-23-2).

Venables’ career arc has certainly drawn parallels to that of Gibbs. Gibbs was a former OU linebacker who became defensive coordinator and was hired to give his by-the-book stoicism to a program that needed a cleanup in the post-Barry Switzer era. Venables was a former OU linebackers coach who became defensive coordinator and was hired to give his no-nonsense focus to a program that needed a cleanup in the post-Lincoln Riley era.

Gibbs’ only sin as Oklahoma’s coach was that he couldn’t beat Nebraska, Colorado or Texas, going 2-15-1 against those big three. Outside of those 18 games, his career record over six seasons was 42-8-1, or .833. Switzer won 83.7 percent of his games. Stoops won 79.9 percent.

But no one outside of Gibbs’ immediate family would suggest that the Sooners were headed in the right direction under his leadership.

Through 2 2/3 seasons, the same must be said about the Sooners under Venables.

Championships are the standard at Oklahoma, not incremental improvements. And so far, that’s all Venables has.

“We’re much better on defense, and certainly made great improvement in our kicking game,” he said.

And the offense is historically bad — the only real issue in a season where a shocking upset in November is the team’s only hope at continuing a 24-year bowl streak. 

Hey, losses happen. But OU’s four losses this year are all by double digits. Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina and Ole Miss combined to outscore the Sooners 120-41. Oklahoma led the Rebels 14-10 at halftime in Oxford, but the games against the Vols, Longhorns and Gamecocks — two of those in Norman — were over by halftime.

Venables also points to improvements made on offense from 2023 over his rookie year in 2022. Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby had another year under his belt, Dillon Gabriel was a year closer to becoming a Heisman frontrunner for a national championship contender (Oregon, not Oklahoma) and the OU offense’s efficiency and explosive numbers were better.

But faced with hiring a new OC and breaking in a new QB, Venables and his staff whiffed. Seth Littrell was not the answer, and Jackson Arnold did not develop. The OU coaching staff this season is “falling incredibly short” — Venables’ words.

Venables shouldn’t be blamed for injuries to his five best wide receivers. That’s the kind of blindside hit no one could have seen coming. But if OU had even all five back this season, would that have been enough to beat Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina and Ole Miss? Maybe.

But everyone saw the lack of offensive linemen on the roster when Venables returned to Norman and elected to keep Bill Bedenbaugh as offensive line coach. A more serious, more determined effort might have produced better results from either the high school recruiting ranks or the NCAA Transfer Portal. Instead, the Sooners inbox for the o-line has lagged behind the outbox for three years running, and now the offense is strapped with arguably the worst line in school history.

That’s not subjective complaining, by the way. Empirical data shows that Oklahoma leads the nation this season, by a lot, with 39 quarterback sacks allowed. Since OU started keeping that stat in 1992, the school record for sacks allowed, set in 2015, was 41. That mark could be broken by halftime of Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. contest with the Maine Black Bears.

OU is also last in the nation in yards per play, just 4.27. Only the Sooners of 1961 (3.8) and 1965 (3.9) averaged less than this year’s team.

And this OU squad is averaging just 3.05 yards per rush. That’s 124th in the country this year (out of 133 teams), and would establish a new school record in a statistic that dates back to 1947.

No, Oklahoma is not going in the right direction — unless backwards is a direction.

Venables is right. The defense is better. Zac Alley was a good hire as defensive coordinator. But Ted Roof was not. Still, Venables addressed that, and got it fixed. But Danny Stutsman and Billy Bowman's decision to return were huge parts of an improved defense. How good will this unit be next year when they're gone and other front-line players leave as well?

The special teams are better under Doug Deakin than they were under Jay Nunez, although Deakin is actually allowed to coach players under new NCAA rules, while Nunez was not. So that’s probably a push.

In the big picture, after going 6-7, 10-3 and now 4-4, Oklahoma has been going in circles.

As Joe Jon Finley and Kevin Johns and Jackson Arnold move forward and try to make this offense better — neither of whom receive or offer any assurance that they’ll be here in 2025 or beyond — the future is dim. The 2024 schedule remains one of the most rigorous in the country, and only gets harder next year as the Sooners play the same SEC opponents and also host 2023 national champ Michigan.

And realistically, Arnold was recruited by Lebby. Does he want to stick around next year to play for a third different QB coach and offensive coordinator? Michael Hawkins has professed his love for OU, but he might have zero ties to the new OC. And do Arnold and Hawkins' future decisions entice 2025 QB Kevin Sperry, or make him nervous? And if the new OC insists on his own o-line coach, how does that impact the impressive offensive line recruits in both the 2024 and 2025 classes who signed on to play for Bedenbaugh? Which other current players might return if their position coach is sent packing? Finley signed the No. 1 tight end (Davon Mitchell), DeMarco Murray signed the No. 1 running back (Taylor Tatum), and Emmett Jones has been masterful at landing prospects at wideout.

“For lots of obvious reasons, which y’all have probably been reporting on for the last several weeks, there’s been a drop-off in our offensive production — a dramatic drop-off this season,” Venables said. “But I believe in the young talent that we have recruited and the guys that are coming in the future, and our ability to go help in recruiting and making our roster better in today’s landscape. We have recruited really well, going on our fourth class, and then again, I love the guys on our defensive staff and the things that Zac combined with the other guys on our defensive staff have done. (They’ve) done a tremendous job and have kept us in, really, in every game, given us a chance.”

That statement offers a peek into Venables’ mindset — that he’s a defensive coach at heart who never gave much thought to how the offenses performed at Kansas State, Oklahoma or Clemson. That was always someone else’s problem. He had enough on his plate.

But now the whole table belongs to Venables — heck, the whole dining room: every plate, every cup, every fork, every saucer has his fingerprints. His focus must be holistic, and for $8 million a year, he must be more of a CEO than he’s been. Never at a school with resources like Oklahoma should the offense be among the worst in the country (or, dating back to 2016-18, the defense).

Venables showed a touch of that strength and ownership earlier this week when he was asked if he talked to athletic director Joe Castiglione about firing offensive coordinator Seth Littrell.

“I told him what I was going to do,” Venables said. “I hadn't talked to him about whether or not, what he thought about it — when I called him, I made the decision. It was great.

“I had to make a tough decision two weeks ago to help us get better. And I believe it did. But time will tell.”

He said he meets weekly with Castiglione and talks to him throughout the week as “just normal protocol.

“He’s the best in the business. He’s been around a lot, both good and bad, and difficult situations that, being in this profession, the coaching profession, collegiate athletics, he’s got a lot of wisdom that he can guide all of us coaches here at this university.”

Asked if he felt like he had Castiglione’s “vote of confidence” to get the football team out of its current malaise, Venables didn’t hesitate. 

“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “He’s got good perspective. He knows things, whether it’s a great alignment from a perspective standpoint of what we're dealing with. So that's the extent of conversations. He’s kind of living and dying in the moment of the season, like a coach would, but being a great vessel of support.”

OU will beat Maine, and the Sooners will probably look very good doing it. In seven previous meetings with opponents from the FCS level, the average score was 62-4.

But this team doesn’t need wallpaper or window dressing. It needs real improvement. To borrow from Venables’ frequent mantra in Year 1, he might not need to “strip it down to the studs,” but there’s some rot that needs to be removed. OU football’s got good bones, but the Sooners are competing in a new neighborhood now. The foundation is strong. But the front porch (the offense) is dilapidated and the place could use a new roof. 

What this team needs now is more reps, more snaps, more practice. To get that, they’ll have to stun Mizzou, or ‘Bama, or LSU, to get to six wins and qualify for a bowl game. Then, they’ll get an additional 15 postseason practices — and maybe then, some real improvements can be achieved.

Venables isn’t thinking like that, of course. 

“We’re in a three-game losing streak — hey, let’s get back on track,” he said. “Let’s start to create a little momentum and maybe feel a little bit better. Winning cures a lot and having some success develops confidence. 

“If we make improvement and get a few guys back, and we can maybe build on some of the success we’ve had — not enough, but some of the success — to have a chance to put a winning streak together to finish the year. It’s going to be tough, going to be a great challenge. It’s doable. That’s our focus.”