Win or lose, the Oklahoma Sooners will be a team of great intrigue in college football this offseason. OU was the lead topic on Thursday's edition of False Start, and for good reason. Recently, everything that's coming out of head coach Brent Venables' mouth is more proof that he is over his skis leading the Sooners. This is not some former Big 12 woebegone.
Venables told the Oklahoma media earlier this week that he plans to call the defense, and his reasoning is vain and defensive. "Why am I calling the defense? Because I'm good at it ... I've acted like my job is on the line for 30 years." Yes, Venables is a great defensive mind and a savvy recruiter, but those two traits have not effectively translated in his four years since taking over for Lincoln Riley.
I wrote about this earlier in the week about how Oklahoma legend Gerald McCoy was bummed that Oklahoma was not holding a spring game. He gets why Venables elected to forego the game, but once again, the fans lose out here. This program is quickly alienating its fanbase with questionable coaching staff changes, in-game decisions and simply not winning enough ball games.
Venables is coming across like he is coaching at an ACC doormat, not at a traditional football power.
Brent Venables: “Why am I calling the defense? Because I’m good at it… I’ve acted like my job is on the line for 30 years.” #Sooners
— George Stoia III (@GeorgeStoia) March 5, 2025
I am intrigued with Ben Arbuckle and John Mateer coming aboard, but I do not trust Venables at all.
Brent Venables sends mixed messages ahead of critical OU offseason
If I were in his shoes and felt that my job leading the Oklahoma Sooners football program was on the line, I would do everything in my power to curry favor with the athletic department, the big-pocketed boosters and the team's rabid fanbase. I would not have canceled the spring game, just because Texas did. I would have wanted to show off to Boomer Sooner Nation all the good that is going on.
Instead, Venables is coming across like a bratty kid yelling at someone through a chainlink fence at a local ball field. When you are all bark and no bite, people tune you out like a yippy dog. While I want nothing more than for Oklahoma to get back to being Oklahoma as part of its new league, I am afraid they have the wrong head coach and athletic director to do that.
The instant I found out that Joe Castiglione gave Venables an unmerited raise ahead of last season, I became increasingly critical of everything to do with the OU program. Again, you are not coaching at Clemson any more, nor are you leading your alma mater of Kansas State. The expectations are higher at Oklahoma. Even Clemson and Kansas State rarely tolerate .500 seasons.
Overall, I am okay to look a fool in all this. Any time I am critical of a college football blue-blood, I want them to prove they belong in that discussion. That is why I am holding teams like Oklahoma and Oregon to that standard this year. If the Sooners win 10 games in the SEC with Mateer at quarterback and Arbuckle calling plays, then I will stand corrected. All I know is I do not like the vibes out of Norman.
For any college coach to contend for championships, he has to delegate and become a CEO-type.