Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables faces a critical season in 2025. He’s had two 6-7 seasons in three years at the helm, sandwiched around a 10-3 mark in Year 2. His first season in the SEC was nightmarish, as OU looked overmatched almost every week.
The former Clemson and Oklahoma defensive coordinator was brought back to Norman to get the program ready for the Southeastern Conference after Lincoln Riley jetted off to Southern California. Venables’ pedigree and history with the OU program as a championship-winning coordinator made him seem like the perfect fit. Instead, the Sooners have sunk lower under his leadership than they’ve been since 1998 and the John Blake years.
Venables’ seat is certainly hot heading into next year, and one analyst who covers the SEC agrees. Paul Finebaum of the SEC Network has now said multiple times that Oklahoma’s head coach could have his time running short in Norman. On “The Paul Finebaum Show,” he said that Venables needs a bounce-back season.
“He needs a big season because he’s had two bad seasons out of three,” Finebaum said. “I wouldn’t press my luck with another one.”
The Sooners schedule in 2025 looks as challenging on paper as it did in 2024. The difference is the quality of quarterbacks on the schedule is vastly different. There are talented signal callers, no doubt, but gone are players like Quinn Ewers, Jalen Milroe, Jaxson Dart, and Brady Cook (though OU saw Drew Pyne in 2024).
Venables and the Oklahoma defense will take on some inexperienced players at the most important position in football in 2025. Garrett Nussmeier and Nico Iamaleava are the most experienced quarterbacks the Sooners will face next season.
If the defense can take another step in the right direction and if the offense can return to respectability, Venables and the Sooners will have a chance to make…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/paul-finebaum-puts-brent-venables-130146843.html
Author : Sooners Wire
Publish date : 2025-02-11 13:01:00
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