Toasty Buns: 10 college football coaches on the hot seat entering 2023

If OU is John Blake bad again, then Brent Venables should be put out to pasture

I already mentioned how Billy Napier could be feeling the pressure to some degree at Florida, but what happens to Brent Venables at Oklahoma if the Sooners look like John Blake is coaching them yet again? This is a top-three program all time, but one that is about to give that up forever to be essentially Auburn, Florida or even LSU in the expanded SEC. Venables might not be built for this

This is different than Napier taking over at Florida, or Mario Cristobal taking over at his alma mater of Miami last season. The Floridian programs were in rough shape when they took over. Venables took over a perennial College Football Playoff contender at OU. The Sooners went 6-7 in 2022, marking the fewest wins in a season for Oklahoma since they finished 5-6 under Blake in 1998.

With this being the last season Oklahoma will ever play in the Big 12, Venables has no choice but to win around eight or nine games to get a third year. Six or seven wins might as well be a pink slip. He may have OU ties, but the Sooners cannot possibly bring him into a new and far more competitive league if Venables can’t clean up in Big 12 play. You better believe the pressure is on.

If the Sooners are hopelessly embarrassed by Texas again in Red River, the writing is on the wall.