Blatant Homerism: The search for a new offensive coordinator
I’ve got some scattershot thoughts about the situation at offensive coordinator for the Oklahoma Sooners. Let’s dive in.
Did Seth Littrell deserve to get fired?
We need to get this out of the way first. I’ll let William Munny answer that one.
Extenuating circumstances put Littrell in a tough spot. He was dealing with an abominable offensive line and a MASH unit at wide receiver. Against that backdrop, he was trying to get two inexperienced quarterbacks acclimated to college football against a brutally difficult schedule in a new conference.
But can anyone really argue Littrell was making the most of what was available to him? It doesn’t feel like he adapted well to the obstacles that were put OU’s path. A tenure of eight games doesn’t give us much to go on in terms of evaluating Littrell; it’s still hard to blame Brent Venables if he didn’t see the situation as salvageable.
Bottom line: After the South Carolina bloodbath, retaining Littrell for another season became impossible to justify to fans and boosters – even if Venables wanted to keep him on the staff. What Littrell deserved doesn’t matter, and he is receiving more than $2.5 million for less than a year of work. He made out alright.
Did Seth Littrell deserve to get hired?
Let’s call Venables’ track record of hiring offensive coordinators “mixed.”
I objected to OU hiring Jeff Lebby as offensive coordinator from the jump based on his involvement in the sexual assault scandal during the tenure of his father-in-law Art Briles at Baylor. However, that doesn’t diminish Lebby’s coaching acumen, which numerous programs coveted before he joined the Sooners staff. By and large, OU fielded highly productive offenses in the two seasons in which Lebby was in charge. In that narrow sense, score the Lebby hire as a win for Venables.
As for Littrell, It seemed evident when he joined OU’s staff as an analyst in 2023 that Venables intended to elevate the former North Texas head coach to offensive coordinator in the event Lebby moved on. It’s worth noting that internal promotions at offensive coordinator were standard operating procedure when Venables was an assistant at both Oklahoma and Clemson:
OU: Mike Leach -> Mark Mangino -> Chuck Long -> Kevin Wilson -> Josh Heupel
Clemson: Chad Morris -> Tony Elliott/Jeff Scott
In other words, Venables comes from organizational cultures in which head coaches are perpetually grooming replacements to step in when coordinators leave. He had an internal candidate with a solid track record as an offensive coordinator already in the building when Lebby left for Mississippi State. That’s consistent with how similar scenarios have played out at his previous stops.
I’d contend that Littrell’s track record indicated he was up to the job, but it also seems like the overriding emphasis on continuity and developing an in-house replacement for Lebby resulted in a poor fit. I don’t view that as a statement about Venables’ ability to identify offensive coaching skills – it does muddy the waters.
Hiring a good offensive coordinator isn’t some dark art.
Coaches and athletic departments can access many resources at little cost to get a preliminary feel for coordinator candidates. If they have an internet connection, they can use cfbstats.com to identify the teams that score the most points and work from there. If they subscribe to ESPN+, they can look at Bill Connelly’s SP+ metrics for a more nuanced application of statistics that measure efficiency on either side of the ball. There’s also YouTube, a free web video platform that has broadcasts of full games and clips for evaluating candidates’ units in action.
For a little bit more money, consulting firms will weigh in on potential hires. You can also reach out to contacts in the coaching community for thoughts on candidates. You might even find some all-22 footage of other teams’ offenses in action.
Get my drift? Identifying promising targets to fill the job shouldn’t be difficult.
Offensive coordinator at OU is a desirable job, but a few factors are working against the Sooners in this specific instance.
First, Brent Venables can’t afford a season like this one again in 2025. Any coordinator who takes the job has to reckon with that reality. If OU suffers through another lackluster year, the possibility of a one-and-done tenure comes into play.
Second, the quarterback and offensive line rooms in Norman are wild cards. We’ve discussed the OL at length already. As for QB, we can’t say for sure if one of the top two now on the roster will be ready to step up next year as the starter. Moreover, given how this season has played out, we don’t know if either wants to stay at OU past this year.
A few names.
No one asked, but here are some of the theoretical candidates I find intriguing:
Kade Bell, OC, Pittsburgh
Ben Arbuckle, OC, Washington State
G.J. Kinne, HC, Texas State
Tim Leger, OC, Louisiana-Lafayette
Craig Stutzmann, OC, San Jose State