“Got to coach better. Got to play better.”
Three years ago, at a different podium in a different conference, Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables used an awkward metaphor to describe his integration process into the program at which he spent more than a decade, including winning the 2000 national championship.
“The firehose is fully inserted in my mouth here. We’ve been blowing and going,” Venables said, drawing predictable commentary on social media.
Now Venables might want to use that firehose to put out the raging inferno underneath his coaching seat after compiling a 23-17 record over his three seasons as the head coach of the Sooners, culminating in a 6-7 mark last year.
Providing the tinder to that hot seat is a 1-2 record against arch rival Texas that includes a 49-0 blowout in 2022 and a 34-3 demolition last season.
At SEC Media Days on Wednesday, Venables was asked about those losses.
“Well, I would say two of the three years we were in a really tough spot at some key positions. I think two years ago was reflective of the type of game that it should be, will be moving forward,” Venables said.
“Yeah, we got to play better. Got to coach better. Got to play better.”
Nearly 400 total yards from quarterback Dillon Gabriel helped fuel a thrilling, last-second 34-30 win by Oklahoma over Texas in 2023.
And injuries certainly did play a role in both losses as Gabriel missed the 2022 contest, leaving overmatched backup Davis Beville to stumble through a 6-of-12 performance with an interception as four other players attempted a pass. In 2024, the initial injury report for the Sooners included five wide receivers.
But the injury snapshot for those two Cotton Bowl matchups doesn’t fully explain the larger program issues in Norman that include a lack of continuity on the coaching staff and key recruiting misses like consensus five-star quarterback Jackson Arnold, Gabriel’s replacement who was benched last season before transferring to Auburn.
As Charlie Strong and Tom Herman demonstrated at Texas, getting key assistant hires wrong can doom a tenure and Venables is unquestionably on that track unless his recent decisions result in better on-field outcomes.
Arguably the best hire by Venables, that of Ole Miss offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, only paid off for two seasons after the former Art Briles assistant was hired as the head coach at Mississippi State after the 2023 season.
The subsequent decision making by Venables was a disaster — elevating former North Texas head coach and Oklahoma alum Seth Littrell from offensive analyst to offensive coordinator along with Joe Jon Finley went so poorly that Littrell was fired in late October after the consecutive blowout losses to Texas and South Carolina.
On the defensive side of the ball, Venables’ speciality, things haven’t gone much better.
Like Lebby, well-traveled, veteran defensive coordinator Ted Roof lasted two seasons with the Sooners before the two sides decided to mutually part ways after the 2023 season. Venables responded by hiring his former graduate assistant at Clemson, rising young coach Zac Alley, who lasted only one year at Oklahoma before joining Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia.
Venables decided to elevate cornerbacks coach Jay Valai to co-defensive coordinator along with Todd Bates while taking over defensive play-calling duties himself for this season, the type of decision that could cost him his job if he can’t replicate the success he had as a coordinator at Oklahoma and Clemson.
Offensively, Venables hired Ben Arbuckle from Washington State, who brought gunslinging quarterback John Mateer with him, while adding former Sooners offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson as an analyst.
Now, with a new athletics director set to replace Joe Castiglione and so many changes on the staff combined with poor on-field results, the pressure on Venables may only increase with another poor showing in the Cotton Bowl.
“We’ll get back on track, look forward to that opportunity in October when it gets here.”