Days after proclaiming he was not a fan of mid-season coaching changes, Brent Venables made a midseason coaching change, firing offensive coordinator Seth Littrell on Sunday. He had no other choice, really. At a program that invented and/or perfect multiple iterations of offensive football, Oklahoma is third-from-the-bottom in FBS in yards per play and not getting better. South Carolina 35, Oklahoma 9 was somehow worse than Texas 34, Oklahoma 3, and so something had to change.
Let's set a lay of the land as Venables embarks on the biggest decision of his professional career.
The existing staff: Sunday's announcement will almost certainly be just the first of many changes once this season ends. Joe Jon Finley -- like Littrell and running backs coach DeMarco Murray, a former Sooner himself -- is now the sole offensive coordinator, but tight end is arguably the worst position on the offense, and thus seems unlikely to return to Oklahoma in 2025.
The biggest decision for Venables will be offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh. In his 12th season as OU's offensive line coach, Bedenbaugh has had a hand in countless yards, points and championships in Norman, and led by 5-star Michael Fasusi and top-100 recruit Ryan Fodje, offensive line is the strength of Oklahoma's 11th-ranked recruiting class.
At the same time, Oklahoma's offensive line is a mishmash of portal players and home-grown recruits that clears the way for Power 4's lowest-producing offense. Letting Bedenbaugh go is a risk, but at this point the results on the field say so is keeping him.
Former Indiana and Duke offensive coordinator Kevin Johns is also on staff and was elevated from an analyst to co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach upon Littrell's dismissal. Venables said Monday night that Johns had been primarily focused on advance scouting, but will now shift duties in his new role.
The stakes: Venables is 20-13 at OU, but just 11-11 in conference play. At 4-3 on the season, the Sooners will be underdogs at No. 18 Ole Miss (Saturday), at No. 21 Missouri (Nov. 9), versus No. 15 Alabama (Nov. 23) and at No. 8 LSU (Nov. 30). Assuming a win over Maine, Oklahoma will need to beat a ranked team to avoid missing a bowl game for the first time since 1998.
Oklahoma football has six losing seasons since World War II:
— Carson Cunningham (@Carson_OKC) October 19, 2024
Bud Wilkinson: 1960
Gomer Jones: 1965
John Blake: 1996, 1997, 1998
Brent Venables: 2022 (2024?)
Excluding the John Blake debacle, Brent Venables would match the program's losing season total (2) since WWII this year.
Barring an unforeseen turnaround, Venables will be coaching for his job in 2025.
The pitch: The statement above about Oklahoma inventing/perfecting offensive football was not hyperbole. OU conquered the sport in the 1950s behind Bud Wilkinson's split-T, dominated the 1970s and 80s via the Wishbone, then returned to the forefront in the 2000s by pioneering the Air Raid. When the program hit a lull in the mid-2010s, Lincoln Riley reinvigorated the program by scoring more points than anyone for seven solid seasons.
Beginning with Mike Leach in 1999 and running through Jeff Lebby last season, eight OU offensive coordinators went on to FBS head coaching jobs. If such a thing as destination offensive coordinator jobs exist, OU's is one. A successful candidate will make lots of money, earn the adulation of one of college football's proudest fan bases, and have his pick of Power 4 head coaching jobs in due time.
The risk: An unsuccessful candidate, and even a not-instantly-and-spectacularly-successful candidate, will be looking for a new place to coach in 2026.
The path forward: There are a million ways to skin this cat, but if I'm Venables these are my priorities, in order.
1) Secure Jackson Arnold's commitment to the program.
Arnold was a 5-star recruit and OU's opening-day starter for a reason. He's the most talented quarterback in the program, and early returns show us that investing what it takes to bring in a blue-chip transfer is too big a risk at this point in time. More here below.
2) Call Dabo, Chad Morris, Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott.
Venables has spent his entire career in three places: his alma mater Kansas State (1993-98), Oklahoma (1999-2011, 2022-present) and Clemson (2012-21). That's great for raising a family and building a philosophical bedrock, but not great for building a diverse network of former colleagues. Given that he just fired Littrell and will likely have to do the same to other former Sooner(s), Venables is not dipping back in the crimson well for his next hire. At the same time, Venables would likely be hesitant to hand the keys to his own future at the biggest job he'll ever have to a complete stranger.
The Clemson years were a successful marriage of his defensive philosophy and explosive offense, so I'm using the brain trust of those teams as my launch point into the candidate pool.
3) Beg, borrow and steal my way into a successful offensive line portal class.
Even as pissed as they undoubtedly are, the money men behind OU's NIL efforts undoubtedly understand that the cheapest and most pragmatic path to restoring Sooner football is making the current regime work. With that established, I'm taking meetings, calling in favors and even opening up high-interest credit cards toward getting, minimum, three Honorable Mention All-SEC caliber linemen at a minimum.
That's obviously easier said than done, but Plans A, B and C are long gone by now. Resources are finite, so I'm better off keeping Arnold and stretching my dollar across multiple linemen rather than paying what it takes for an A-list QB and hoping a competent offensive line materializes in front of him. If I can hire a coordinator and/or O-line coach who has, ahem, special access to linemen who might end up at Oklahoma if certain hires are made, all the better.
4) Digest the magnitude of the situation and decide which level of uncertainty I'm willing to risk my tenure on.
If the 2025 season goes like the current one, Venables will not be Oklahoma's head coach in 2026. Given those stakes, do I hire someone like a Kade Bell, who was coaching in the Southern Conference as recently as 2023, but who would come with his own system and offensive line coach (Jeremy Darveau followed Bell from Western Carolina to Pitt), and bet that their experience will scale up to the SEC?
Washington State's Ben Arbuckle, all of 29 years old, has four years of FBS experience. South Alabama's Rob Ezell is in his first season as a coordinator and a quarterbacks coach. Many of the hot young names tossed around either A) haven't called plays, B) if they have called plays, have done so under an offensive-minded head coach whose system they are running, or C) haven't coached quarterbacks.
At the same time, what established, career offensive coordinator is leaving his secure gig for Oklahoma's situation right now?
A middle-ground name to keep an eye on is Tulane's Joe Craddock. Craddock, 39, was a GA for two years while Venables was at Clemson, then spent five years under Morris at SMU and Arkansas. He's now in his third year as the coordinator and quarterbacks coach under a defensive-minded head coach in Jon Sumrall.
It's too early to seriously discuss names now, though. Venables's mind is on beating Ole Miss and preventing his third Oklahoma season from devolving even further.
After that, Venables will have to decide what level of risk and uncertainty he's comfortable betting his Oklahoma future on. Once he's made that decision, then the OU coordinator search will be on.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.