Winning in Bedlam has put out the fire on a rough first season for Brent Venables at Oklahoma.
Sometimes, you only have to beat your team’s big in-state rival to silence the critics just a bit.
That is exactly what happened on Saturday night when Brent Venables’ Oklahoma Sooners beat Mike Gundy’s Oklahoma State Cowboys in Bedlam. Not only did the Sooners beat one of their biggest rivals, but it got Oklahoma its most important sixth win of the season with a game to spare. It may have been a massively down year for OU standards, but bowl eligibility is everything.
This will afford Venables and his staff more time to work with their players to get even better.
Brent Venables wins in Bedlam to take some pressure off him at Oklahoma
Once it became abundantly clear that OU was nothing close to a top-25 team, all the Sooners needed to do to give Venables at least a second year on the job was win three conference games. Since OU took care of business in the non-conference vs. UTEP, Kent State and at traditional rival Nebraska, the Sooners only needed three wins in Big 12 play to make sure they could go bowling.
While it was ugly to say the least, Oklahoma sits at 3-5 in conference play with wins vs. Kansas, at Iowa State and vs. a still somehow ranked Oklahoma State team. Although it would be good to finish the regular season at 7-5 (4-5) with a win over Texas Tech in Lubbock, again, bowl eligibility is the only thing that matters for a first-time head coach like Venables in this type of a situation.
Recruiting is not going to suffer massively, while the players on the roster will have a chance to level up between now and their holiday season bowl game. Not to say he is the guy, but programs the caliber of Oklahoma tend to pop in year two when they have the right coach in charge. It was going to be a bumpy road with Lincoln Riley leaving for USC, but Venables’ ship has not sunken yet.
For Venables to get his sixth win on the year and for that to come in Bedlam, oh, you can spin that!
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