Brent Venables is staring at the same problem again, and Saturday only made it louder.
Oklahoma’s 42-25 loss to South Carolina in a boo-filled home game was another ugly chapter in a season where the Sooners keep running into the same wall: an offense that never seems to settle into anything reliable under coordinator Ben Arbuckle. The loss followed a string of frustrating outings - the flat showing at home against Kentucky, the beating at Georgia and the near miss against New Mexico in Week 3 - and it left Oklahoma at 4-4 overall and 2-3 in the SEC.
Since the Red River win over top-ranked Texas to open October, the Sooners’ offense has slid back into familiar territory. They’re now just one game over .500 in conference play under Venables at 20-19, and without a strong finish, a third losing season in five years is in play.
The issue was obvious early against the Gamecocks. Oklahoma had no real rushing presence, and John Mateer spent the first half throwing into a game plan that never stretched South Carolina beyond the perimeter.
He completed 7 of 12 passes for 25 yards before halftime, and the Sooners actually had more penalty yards than offensive yards by the break. Their only points came on Kip Lewis’ interception return for a touchdown in the second quarter, while South Carolina built a 28-10 lead.
That kind of afternoon has become the pattern. Venables keeps talking about execution and explosive plays, and it’s the same refrain that has followed the Sooners through the season.
He brought in Arbuckle after the 2024 season to jump-start the offense, and Mateer came with him from Washington State to run it. But the payoff has not matched the investment.
Oklahoma’s offensive problems didn’t begin this fall, either. The Sooners made the College Football Playoff last season, but they got there despite an offense that was often held together by defense.
Over four games last November before the CFP’s first round, Oklahoma had 47 offensive possessions. Twenty-five ended in punts, five in turnovers and one on downs.
Nine possessions ended with field goals, and seven ended in touchdowns. Only two of those touchdown drives lasted five or more plays.
This season has looked too familiar. Entering Saturday, Oklahoma ranked last in the SEC in total offense and rushing offense, and 15th in scoring offense.
Those numbers were worse than last year’s. According to TruMedia, the Sooners’ three-and-out rate was 34.1% coming into the game, which ranked 120th nationally.
“It ain't changing,” Oklahoma grad and analyst Dari Nowkah said at halftime from the SEC Network set. “You'll see No. 10 trot back out there. That's been the story every game of John Mateer's career; there are opportunities, they're just not being discovered.”
The late surge against South Carolina did little to change the bigger picture. Oklahoma managed only three points across its first eight offensive possessions before Mateer finally found Ivan Carreon for a pair of touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, Carreon’s first scores of the season.
By then, the game was effectively over. Mateer finished 26 of 43 for 244 yards, with much of that production coming after the outcome had already been decided.
The Sooners have also been stuck in a quarterback conversation that doesn’t offer much comfort for the offseason. Unless Oklahoma lands one of the best available quarterbacks in the transfer portal for 2027, the depth chart will be built around two true freshmen, senior Whitt Newbauer and sophomore Bowe Bentley, among others. Newbauer and Bentley have combined for two passing attempts this season, and Venables won’t have much room to ask fans for another year of patience.
Arbuckle is in the second season of a three-year deal as play-caller, and the scheme has shown flashes. The problem is that the execution keeps breaking down. Oklahoma still has to decide what it wants to be on offense and then make that identity part of the program, not just a weekly hope.
Right now, the Sooners are not creating enough help for Mateer, and the run game isn’t giving him much to lean on. Venables knows what championship defense looks like - he coached plenty of them at Clemson and had one last season at Oklahoma - but this next stretch is about more than defense. He has to get the offense aligned with the rest of the program, and that means a real answer, not another year of waiting for it to click.
Running this back in 2027 and expecting a surge offensively isn’t going to work, unless Oklahoma lands a quarterback who can execute what’s called or Arbuckle takes an identity first mindset into the offseason and hammers it home with the players.
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