Blatant Homerism: The way forward
I’ve had a hard time coming up with things to write about regarding the Oklahoma Sooners in the last couple of weeks. The reality is that there isn’t much to discuss when it comes to the particulars of the 2024 squad – this cake got baked long ago. The Sooners also don’t really factor into the SEC of College Football Playoff race, so no use spending much time on either subject at the moment.
Brady suggested a good prompt: Is the Missouri game this week a fork in the road for Brent Venables as OU’s head coach? In truth, the broader issue here seems to be when – and how – we’re supposed to know if Venables is capable of leading the Sooners to a national championship.
If you bet at the time a coach was hired that said coach would never win a national championship, you’d be correct about 99% of the time. That’s just math: The FBS division of college football consists of more than 130 programs. As such, I don’t find it revelatory to reach that conclusion at some point during a coach’s tenure.
I’d also point out that nothing about coaches like Ed Orgeron and Gene Chizik suggested they were “the guy” at LSU and Auburn, respectively. I’d be willing to bet that moment of realization came to fans of both those teams around the time the clock ran out in their national championship games and not a moment before then. All of which is to say that I have a tough time putting any stock in our ability to predict that future.
Building sustainable programs with lots of great players has proven to be the surest way to win national championships, especially since the advent of the College Football Playoff. You should, therefore, use that rubric to judge Venables if that is the goal.
I believe Venables has done a significant amount of necessary work to position the Sooners for sustainable success. Whether or not he ever wins a national championship in the future at OU doesn’t matter to me right now. I just want to see the program continue building on that good work, and I think Venables will accomplish that.
If the day comes when it appears it’s worth risking losing some – or all – of that foundation to bring in a new head coach, I’ll get on board with the idea OU needs someone else.
With that in mind, Venables has burned through a lot of goodwill through the first nine games of OU’s inaugural year in the SEC. He could recapture some of that with a strong finishing kick.
Moreover, a few silver linings have emerged from a season that appeared rocky from the start.
OU is getting new leadership on offense.
The Sooners were doomed to fail on O by a host of factors, including a porous offensive line and massive injuries in the receiving corps. Deposed offensive coordinator Seth Littrell doesn’t deserve blame for any of that. Littrell is responsible for how he responded to those setbacks, however, and that didn’t go well.
Venables hired and retained Littrell to maintain continuity when previous offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby inevitably left for an opportunity to be a head coach. It was a defensible move at the time, but now Venables has to bring in some new blood. Assume some new position coaches may be roaming the sidelines next year, too.
Think of it as an opportunity to move the program forward.
The coaching staff saw firsthand what skimping on the offensive line gets you.
Lincoln Riley’s roster mismanagement planted the seeds of this shambolic OL, but a pinchpenny approach to restocking the trenches assured the Sooners would have their worst OL in decades. Supposedly, OL coach Bill Bedenbaugh and Venables learned their lesson from this debacle.
The Sooners have more complete information about the quarterback room.
Second-year QB Jackson Arnold found himself in a similar position as Littrell this year. No one could blame him for all the flaws in the offense, but he committed catastrophic mistakes early in the season that made the situation worse. His replacement, freshman Michael Hawkins, didn’t really improve things.
Arnold has looked steadier since getting the job back, but he has yet to cement himself as OU’s signal caller of the future. He has the rest of the season to show his growth. After that, Venables and the incoming offensive coordinator can make a call on how to staff the position next season.