Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables on Saturday announced the hiring of Arkansas State defensive coordinator Nate Dreiling as inside linebackers coach and former Clemson defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin as assistant linebackers/outside linebackers coach, and the promotion of himself to defensive play-caller.
"I have reflected on all facets of our program over the past several weeks," Venables said in a statement. "Since I was hired as head coach, we have carefully assembled the defensive personnel and scheme that is suited to compete at the highest level, and we've built a deep and talented roster ready for the moment. I have high expectations for our program and will do everything in my power to achieve our goals for our players. To that end, I will take over defensive play-calling responsibilities for the 2025 season."
Three seasons in, Venables finds himself stuck in a Catch-22 that ensnares many first-time head coaches:
It was his prowess as a defensive coordinator that got him the Oklahoma job in the first place. Why wouldn't he run his own defense?
Then again, Venables was hired to be Oklahoma's head coach. Every moment he's spending with the defense is a moment he's not overseeing the offense and tending to the many CEO aspects of the job. If Venables isn't monitoring those things, who is?
One could respond that Venables can be both things in one body, but that ignores the key point of how we got here: Thus far, he hasn't been both. Or at least he hasn't done a good enough job of it. And if Venables's team doesn't improve in 2025, there will very likely be a different staff in place in 2026.
Three seasons in, Oklahoma's defense looks like what the Sooner signed up for upon his hire in December 2021. The Sooners ranked 82nd in yards per play in 2022, then 54th in 2023, and then 23rd this past season. That ranking is more impressive than the number implies, for reasons we'll get to in a moment. Linebacker Danny Stutsman was a consensus All-American, leading a defense that ranked in the top 40 nationally in sacks, tackles for loss, and takeaways.
The offense, meanwhile, has been a complete mess.
The 2024 season was banked upon the promotion of Seth Littrell to offensive coordinator and Jackson Arnold to starting quarterback, and neither are with the program today. As a unit, OU finished 124th in yards per play, 97th in scoring (aided by multiple defensive touchdowns), 95th in yards per carry, and 128th in yards per attempt.
Venables has since hired Washington State's Ben Arbuckle as offensive coordinator and brought quarterback John Mateer along with him, but those remains the only wholesale structural changes to the offense to date. The rest of the offensive staff remains intact.
And in naming himself the de facto defensive coordinator, Venables has also named Arbuckle -- a 30-year-old with three years of on-field coaching experience at the college level -- as his de facto associate head coach.
Meanwhile, the stakes could not be higher for this coaching staff. Venables has finished 6-7 in two of his three seasons leading Oklahoma. No one knows the minimum number of victories needed to secure a fifth season atop the program, but rest assured it's north of six.
With his job on the line, Venables is betting on himself and doubling down on the side of the ball that's performing as expected, thereby reducing his oversight over the aspects of his program that put his job security in jeopardy in the first place.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.