The 2025 college football season is in the books, and for Oklahoma, Year 4 under Brent Venables offered a clear sign: the Sooners are trending in the right direction. While they didn’t end the year hoisting the national championship trophy, a 10-3 finish, a return to the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2019, and a 13th-place ranking in the final AP Poll mark a significant step forward for a program that’s been rebuilding under Venables’ watch.
Let’s be clear - this was a pivotal year for Oklahoma. It was their first full season in the SEC gauntlet, and they held their own with a 6-2 conference record.
That’s no small feat in a league that routinely churns out national contenders. But what really set this Sooners team apart was something we haven’t said about Oklahoma in quite some time: defense.
Yes, defense - and not just “good for the Big 12” defense. We’re talking about a unit that led the SEC in several key categories and ranked among the best in the nation.
Venables, who took back defensive play-calling duties this season, put his fingerprints all over this group. The result?
A defense that played fast, physical, and smart - the kind of unit that kept Oklahoma in games even when the offense struggled to find its footing.
And struggle it did, at least at times. Under first-year offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, the Sooners made some modest strides from the previous year, but consistency was hard to come by.
The passing game showed flashes, but the run game regressed, and the offense as a whole never quite clicked into high gear. It was an uneven season on that side of the ball, and it showed - especially in the playoff loss to Alabama, where Oklahoma bowed out in the first round in a rematch that didn’t go their way.
Still, there’s no ignoring the progress. This was the second 10-win season in four years under Venables, and it marked the program’s highest final AP ranking since 2021.
More importantly, it felt like the foundation of something sustainable. The defense has an identity now - one built on Venables’ aggressive, disciplined philosophy - and with another offseason to refine the offense under Arbuckle, there’s reason to believe the Sooners can become a more complete team in 2026.
The numbers back it up. In the final statistical breakdown of the season, Oklahoma showed marked improvement across all three phases of the game compared to the previous three years.
Defensively, they were elite. Special teams were solid.
Offensively, there’s still work to be done - but even that unit showed signs of life in key stretches.
Bottom line: 2025 was a season of validation for Brent Venables. The Sooners proved they can compete in the SEC, they made it back to the playoff, and they did it with a defensive identity that hasn’t been seen in Norman in years. There’s still another level to reach, but for the first time in a while, Oklahoma fans can see the path clearly - and it’s leading back toward national relevance.