Another missed swing on the offensive coordinator front could put Brent Venables in a far tougher spot than anyone wants to admit.
I’ve been a Brent Venables guy from the start. I like him as a person.
I like the way he leads. If one of my sons wanted to play college football, I’d want him playing for Venables.
He carries the same kind of presence I see in Oklahoma baseball coach Skip Johnson - the sort of leader who shapes players into men, not just athletes.
Even through this ugly season, with the offense sliding back toward the Seth Littrell level of pain, I’m still in Venables’ corner. I think he’s the right man to run Oklahoma’s defense, which has stayed near the top of the country and has basically kept OU alive in the last two games. I also think he’s built to handle the CEO role.
But that brings up the two questions hanging over everything: can he keep doing that while still calling the shots on defense, and can he finally fix the offense?
His first swing at the job was a home run. The Jeff Lebby hire worked. Lebby was the best offensive coordinator Venables has had, and he also turned Mississippi State into a program that looks a lot like the Baylor attack his father-in-law, Art Briles, built in the mid-2010s.
Since then, though, the misses have piled up. Promoting Littrell was a mistake from the jump. The idea was to keep Jackson Arnold in the fold and preserve continuity, even though Littrell had never worked in the Briles offense and didn’t know how to run it.
That didn’t last. Littrell was fired in the middle of the season, and Joe Jon Finley - the one guy who actually had Briles/Lebby/Heupel experience - finished the year just trying to get to the end.
Arnold and that offensive setup were gone. In came Ben Arbuckle, the hot name from Washington State, along with his quarterback, John Mateer.
The beginning wasn’t spotless, but the Sooners found enough balance with that elite defense to make a College Football Playoff run in Year 1 and nearly win the program’s first playoff game.
That raised the temperature heading into 2026. The defense has kept its “Hard to Kill” identity.
The offense, though, has been brutal to watch. I can’t claim that phrase, but it fits.
At this point, the one move that feels inevitable is Arbuckle being out as offensive coordinator.
And that’s where the conversation gets uncomfortable. For the first time, there’s real doubt about Venables himself.
What happens if the next offensive hire doesn’t click? At some point, this starts to feel like the last shot.
That’s why the bigger question matters: if Oklahoma ever had to move on from Venables - something made more complicated by this offseason’s extension - where would the Sooners even go? Venables has been adored by players since his days as OU’s defensive coordinator. His players have stayed with him, and the recruiting classes have remained near the top of the country.
If OU ever makes that kind of move, it’s not a tweak. It’s a full reset. The defense goes with him, and the next hire has to be right or the program could drift into the middle of the pack, or worse, for a long time.
So if that day ever comes, here are a few names that make sense.
Jeff Lebby, the head coach at Mississippi State, is the obvious first call. In my view, the job would be his if he wanted it.
He’s an OU alum, and he has turned Mississippi State into something a lot of people probably didn’t think he could. His offense looks a lot like the Baylor machine he worked in from 2008-16 alongside his father-in-law.
The Bulldogs lead the nation in total offense and rank in the top 15 in scoring offense.
Would he actually leave the program he’s building, especially after “the incident”? That’s impossible to know. But Oklahoma is a better job than Mississippi State, so at the very least he’d listen.
Josh Heupel at Tennessee is another name, though probably a tougher sell. He’s taken a winding road after his run as OU’s offensive coordinator and has Tennessee in a strong place, enough to host ESPN College GameDay this weekend against Texas.
The bridge with Oklahoma may be burned, since he was fired there. Still, his record is strong: 76-28 overall, including 48-20 at Tennessee.
The concern is his 24-16 mark in SEC play, which isn’t quite Oklahoma standard.
If the Sooners wanted to stay on the offensive side of the ball, Mike Shanahan at Indiana deserves a look. After the defensive-first experiment with Venables, going with an offensive-minded head coach feels like the cleaner path.
Shanahan has Indiana humming even after losing several NFL skill players, and the Hoosiers are sixth in scoring offense. He looks like a future head coach.
Whether that would happen in Norman is another matter.
Shannon Dawson at Miami fits the same mold. He’s got the Canes rolling again after helping them get to the national title game last season.
Miami is ranked No. 2 in total offense and No. 10 in scoring offense, and it looks headed for another playoff run and maybe a national title push. The quarterback and skill talent are there, too - exactly the kind of setup Oklahoma fans would welcome.
Then there’s the wild card: Kendal Briles at South Carolina. On paper, it sounds strange.
Why would Lebby pass and Briles say yes? But Briles still hasn’t landed a head coaching job, and if the goal is to get the offense and the program moving again, he’d be a high-risk, high-reward swing.
South Carolina’s offense is fifth in total offense and 11th in scoring offense. Oklahoma probably isn’t in a place to gamble, but this is one of those names you can’t quite rule out.
In Other News...
Former Sooners Are Making Oklahomas Offensive Questions Even Louder
The departure of a few Sooners has only sharpened the conversation around Oklahomas offense, because the production those players are finding elsewhere is hard to ignore. Javonnie Gibson has settled in at Cincinnati and boosted his receiving numbers, Michael Hawkins Jr. is giving West Virginia a real dual-threat presence, Zion Ragins is carving out meaningful work as a pass catcher, and Jake Taylor has emerged as both a starter and team captain at Iowa State.
For Oklahoma, the part that stings is less about the exits themselves than what they suggest about fit and usage. Each player appears to have benefited from a different offensive setup and a clearer role than he had in Norman, which only adds weight to the questions already hanging over the Sooners as they search for more consistency and identity on that side of the ball. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahomas Offensive Struggles Just Put Jim Nagy In A Tough Spot
Oklahomas offensive woes have quickly turned into a larger roster question for the Sooners, and it lands squarely on the shoulders of general manager Jim Nagy and coach Brent Venables. The issues are not limited to execution on game day, either. Recent additions have not yet solved the problem, injuries have exposed thin spots, and the overall depth picture on offense has started to look shakier than it did when the roster was assembled.
The concern reaches beyond the obvious offensive struggles and into linebacker, where the Sooners are also feeling the effects of personnel decisions. One part of the discussion has centered on former linebacker Sammy Omosigho and whether keeping him would have helped stabilize the group. For a staff trying to build a more reliable roster, the combination of uneven play, injuries and second-guessing a few key departures makes the current situation more complicated than just finding better production on Saturdays. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahomas Defense Just Took Another Brutal Hit Before Georgia
Oklahomas defensive front took another troubling turn this week when defensive tackle David Stone went down with a lower-body injury in practice and is set for more testing to determine just how serious it is. The timing could hardly be worse for a Sooners defense already trying to absorb injuries elsewhere, including at linebacker with Kip Lewis.
Stone is expected to miss Saturdays game against Georgia, and the bigger concern for Oklahoma is whether this becomes a short-term absence or something more. For a unit that has been leaning on depth and next-man-up thinking, losing another key piece this late in the week only tightens the pressure heading into one of the toughest matchups on the schedule. [Read more 🡒]