Blatant Homerism: What it means to want more
In Oklahoma Sooners parlance, the idiom for “fine, but not good enough” is Gary Gibbs.
As a former OU player and key member of Barry Switzer’s coaching staff in the 1980s, Gibbs took over as head coach of the Sooners in 1989. Nothing about Gibbs’ accomplishments in his six-year tenure screams incompetence – he never had a losing season. But Gibbs compiled an overall record of 44-23-2. The Sooners’ best finish in the Big Eight standings under Gibbs? An uninspiring tie for second in 1990.
With his team careening towards a 6-6 finish at the end of the 1994 season, Gibbs resigned under immense pressure from all corners of Sooner Nation. The message was clear: Posting a winning record alone might fly at some programs, but OU demanded more than that from its coaches.
Brent Venables is riding a Gibbs-like trajectory heading into his fourth season as OU’s head coach. At 22-17 overall, phrases like “settling for mediocrity” are floating around among Sooner fans. It has become a foregone conclusion that Venables needs his team to show signs of major progress in 2025 to avoid suffering the same fate as Gibbs.
But Venables’ situation also parallels that of Gibbs in that both started their stints as head coach during periods of major upheaval around OU’s program. For Gibbs, it was wrestling with the effects of crippling NCAA sanctions and dealing with the fallout from well-publicized criminal behavior by Switzer’s players. Venables got hit with the triple whammy of inheriting Lincoln Riley’s mismanaged roster; the pairing of new player compensation rules with relaxed transfer restrictions; and facing a monstrous schedule in OU’s first season in the SEC.
Gibbs didn’t show anything during his tenure to make anyone think he was the second coming of Knute Rockne. Even so, it’s worth considering the possibility that circumstances played a far greater role in OU’s struggles than Gibbs’ coaching acumen. As for Venables, I struggle with how much responsibility he should bear for OU’s performance in the last three years relative to the size of the challenge he took on.
Of course, coaches get paid well enough to understand they don’t deserve more rope just because factors beyond their control intercede. What they deserve are the juicy buyouts stipulated in their contracts if their employers no longer desire their services. If Venables doesn’t deliver in 2025, OU will have given him ample time to prove himself.
But changing head coaches doesn’t guarantee success if you don’t recognize that factors beyond their aptitude might have contributed to the need for that change. In fact, ignoring them raises the possibility that a coaching change could make the situation even worse. Note, for instance, the two head coaches immediately following Gibbs at OU went a combined 17-27-1 in the next four years.
A strict aversion to mediocrity has fueled the success of OU football throughout its history. However, even as fans, demanding better for the program requires an honest appraisal of what that really entails and why the program isn’t achieving it. Rarely does all of the responsibility for the shortfall lie solely at the feet of the head coach. Keep that in mind if the Sooners find themselves in the market a year from now.
Playoff picks
Orange Bowl: Penn State (+1) vs. Notre Dame
The Fighting Irish seem to have morphed overnight from some of college football’s arch villains to the sentimental favorite in this year’s postseason. This certainly looks like the most physical and fast team out of South Bend in a long time, which was key to avoiding the usual bullying of Georgia in ND’s last game. I suspect that win had more to do with the Bulldogs’ own mistakes than anything the Irish did. Give me Penn State in a minor upset, keeping in mind that the Nittany Lions effectively had two more days of rest before this game than the Irish.
Cotton Bowl: Texas (+6) vs. Ohio State
Did the Buckeyes fire all of their bullets in their first two games? I haven’t watched enough of Ohio State this year to tell if they broke a bunch of new tricks versus Tennessee and Oregon. If OSU’s dominance over those two opponents had more to do with kicking it up a notch for the postseason, it’s hard to come up with adjustments Texas coach Steve Sarkisian could make to give the Longhorns a better chance of winning this matchup. In the end, UT needs to hope that Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard commits his customary mistakes and Longhorns QB Quinn Ewers doesn’t commit his. Buckeyes, 27-21.