Why is Brent Venables calling his own defense again? "Because I'm good at it."

Coming off a successful 2023 season, the plan at Oklahoma was to level up with new faces in key positions. After Jeff Lebby got the Mississippi State job, Seth Littrell was promoted to co-offensive coordinator and play-caller; when Dillon Gabriel transferred to Oregon, OU promoted former 5-star Jackson Arnold to QB1; and after calling the defense himself, Venables hired his longtime understudy Zac Alley as defensive coordinator and play-caller.

We could spill a lot of ink on the ways and manner in which Oklahoma failed in 2024, but it's best surmised like this: none of those three gentlemen are still at OU.

In their place are new football chairman Randall Stephenson, new general manager Jim Nagy, new offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, new starting quarterback John Mateer, and a new/old defensive coordinator in Brent Venables.

In announcing Nagy's hire last week, Oklahoma stated Stephenson will provide "day-to-day oversight of the general manager and head football coach." There are two ways to interpret such a move:

1) Oklahoma has finally provided Venables with the structure and support necessary to win in college football in the post-amateur era. In this rapidly changing world, the general manager is, at a minimum, the most important hire next to the strength coach below the head coach, and OU replaced a former player not qualified for the position with the executive director of the Senior Bowl. 

2) With two losing seasons in three years, Oklahoma has created a new structure proved necessary by Venables's failures in program building and roster management. This structure will oversee and work alongside Venables and, if he follows a poor 2024 with a poor 2025, outlive his time at Oklahoma. 

In addition to Stephenson and Nagy, Arbuckle will serve as a de facto assistant head coach, having total oversight of the offense with Venables running the defense. Even if Venables is at the football facility 24 hours a day, he can only be in one place at a time. When Venables is game-planning with the defense, the 30-year-old Arbuckle will install the offense on his own.

Entering a make-or-break year, why arrange your staff this way when you've already got two new, loud voices in the room above and next to you? Why give up all this power?

"Why am I going to call the defense?" Venables asked. "Because I'm good at it. And I'm confident in it."

Venables said he weighed the prospect of bringing in an outside hire (whose chops in that job would not be as good as his own, by definition) and evaluated the existing staff, then came to the conclusion he was the best option for the team. 

"Managing game day, in-season, out-of-season, the meeting room, the practice field, I know what that looks like. I have a good feel for that. Many people do it at a really high level. That's a comfort zone for me," he said.

The first qualifications Venables listed were "get a few more first downs" and "don't give the ball back." That isn't coach-speak from him. Turnover avoidance is the No. 1 thing Venables seeks from his offense, and last year's team gave the ball away 21 times in 13 games. The 2024 Sooners ranked seventh in defensive efficiency according to FEI, and 80th on offense. If Oklahoma has an offense that is merely not self-destructive, the Sooners could be pretty good in 2025. Brent Venables is comfortable winning the game with defense, which means putting the entire program's plan to win on his back. 

"When we get in that stadium, and it's 3rd-and-12 and you've got to make the call, everything's quiet for me. It ain't loud. It's quiet for me," he said. "It ain't, 'Oh my god, all this pressure.' It ain't that way for me. It's a freakin' safe place for me. It's as quiet as all get out. For whatever reason that's always how it's been for me."

Wednesday was an open-house day for the Sooners ahead of spring football. In addition to a lengthy Venables press conference, the OU media met with Nagy and Mateer. Those press conferences came at an interesting time, because also on Wednesday ESPN's Bill Connelly released his 2025 strength of schedule ratings. Oklahoma rated first.

Connelly projects Oklahoma as the 20th best team in the nation but, due to the nation's toughest schedule, projects them to win 6.3 games. If that happens, Oklahoma likely has a new head coach in 2026. 

Entering a make-or-break season with diminished autonomy over his program, Venables explained he's been preparing for the 2025 campaign since he entered coaching more than 30 years ago. 

"I've had that mindset my entire career," he said. "Every game's that way. Every day I show up, my job's on the line. I've had that (mindset) for 30 years... I've been fighting for my job every year. Like somebody's holding me under water, trying to drown me. And that's been my mindset when I come to work every day."