Brent Venables is not considering making mid-season changes to his offensive staff, he announced at his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
“You go back and look at where I’ve been, I’ve not been a part of any staff changes in the middle of a season,” Venables said. “Bill Snyder, Bob Stoops or at Clemson with Dabo. There’s always problems. Sometimes people know about ‘em, sometimes they don’t. There’s always some level of struggle and you gotta work through your problems, find the best possible solutions, and if you have success, it’s everybody, and sometimes when you don’t have success, people want to point to one guy. And sometimes that’s probably appropriate, to blame one person.
“But most of the time, it’s not. It’s a combination of a lot of things, why you’re struggling. So again, you try to put it all together and have a perspective. Not make any rash decisions based on the information that you have. At the end of the day, there’s nothing easy about any of it. But I’ve been a part of those staffs, too, where decisions were made, you know, at the end of the year, but nothing mid-season.”
The questions come after a rock-bottom performance in OU's 34-3 loss to No. 1 Texas.
Thanks to a stellar start by their defense, the Sooners' first three possessions began at the Texas 45, the OU 49, and the OU 37. Those possessions netted three points, and Oklahoma was shut out from there. In fact, until a 17-play, 69-yard drive at the end of the game, Oklahoma had fewer total yards (168) than the 2022 Red River loss where Brent Venables' team most of the game without a quarterback.
Oklahoma's problems extend far beyond Saturday, of course.
The Sooners rank 16th of 16 in the SEC in total offense (287.7 yards per game), yards per play (4.48), rushing offense (122 yards per game), yards per carry (3.4), passing efficiency (122.29), passing offense (165.7 yards per game), and yards per attempt (5.8).
"Not playing winning football on offense," Venables said. "... At the end of the day, we've got to find ways to get the ball in the end zone. We're not doing that right now, and that's a problem."
Seth Littrell is in his first year as Oklahoma's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach after spending 2023 as an analyst. Joe Jon Finley is the co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach, also in his first year in a co-coordinator role, thought he was hired as OU's associate head coach for offense under Lincoln Riley in 2021.
Littrell, Finley and running backs coach DeMarco Murray are former Sooners themselves, while offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh is in his 12th season on the staff.
At 4-2 overall and 1-2 in SEC play, Oklahoma hosts South Carolina on Saturday (12:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network) with No. 18 Ole Miss, No. 19 Missouri, No. 7 Alabama and No. 8 LSU all among OU's final five opponents.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.