As the Oklahoma Sooners wrap up a second 6-7 season in three years under Brent Venables, the questions swirling around his leadership and methodology have reached a fever pitch. With the 2024 campaign falling well short of the program’s lofty standards, many are scrutinizing Venables’ decisions both on and off the field.
While the offense’s sharp decline and in-game management issues have garnered significant attention, one major concern might be hiding in plain sight: the intensity of Venables’ old-school practice philosophy.
The Toll of Venables’ Practices
Venables’ reputation for fiery, hard-nosed coaching dates back to his days as Oklahoma’s defensive coordinator in the early 2000s. Back then, his defenses were among the most physical and dominant in college football, but his methods also came with a cost. Stories from former Sooners have long hinted at tension between Venables and offensive staff members over his refusal to scale back the physicality in practices, especially in full contact "Good on Good" drills.
Fast-forward to 2024, and it’s clear that Venables’ practices are still demanding — sometimes, players suggest, to a fault. A source close to the program shared insights from players who described the workload as "intense and full of hitting, sometimes brutal."
One former player went so far as to say:
"Every year it has been intense, but slowly getting less intense. It’s almost the complete opposite of (Lincoln Riley’s) practices, which were soft. They got so bad Schmitty (OU strength and conditioning coordinator Jerry Schmidt) had to tell (Venables) to calm the practices down the first year. That’s why we were exhausted six games (into) the first season."
In Year 2, Venables seemed to dial back the intensity, but by Year 3, the coach reportedly defaulted back to working everyone — his coaches included — harder.
The 2024 season saw a noticeable reduction in practice intensity compared to previous years, according to players, but it still took a toll. One player described the evolution this way:
"It was less intense than last year’s fall camp. Still brutal, but that’s more due to the safeties loving to hit and BV pushing intensity. Game weeks were intense, but BV is starting to learn how to load manage (players), so we are not all exhausted by game day."
Lessons from Nick Saban
Even coaching greats have struggled to balance toughness with player recovery. Last week, Alabama head coach Nick Saban reflected on his time at Michigan State during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. Saban revealed that his teams went 0-5 in bowl games during his tenure with the Spartans because he refused to ease up after the Big Ten season ended.
"I just kept working them like we had a game every week leading up to the bowl," Saban said. "And we got our asses kicked every year."
The parallels to Venables’ approach are striking. Both coaches share a belief in building toughness through relentless preparation, but Saban says he later had to adjust his methods to incorporate sports science and recovery principles, resulting in his legendary success at Alabama.
Venables, by comparison, appears to still be finding that balance. Post-South Carolina, the level of panic at OU had reached new levels, with Venables falling back into a habit of trying to grind out any improvement he could to stop OU's on-the-field descent.
The Fallout in 2024
The Sooners were decimated by injuries in 2024, particularly on offense. By season’s end, their top six wide receivers were sidelined, with four of them never making it to Week 1. Starting wideout Jalil Farooq went down on the second play of the season opener, and the offensive line shuffled through eight different starting lineups across 12 games. While some injuries are unavoidable, the sheer volume and frequency of attrition raise questions about the physical demands placed on the team in practice.
Beyond the physical toll, there’s also a psychological cost. The offensive line, already considered one of the least athletic units Oklahoma has fielded in years, reportedly struggled to develop confidence and cohesion due to the relentless intensity of practices during fall camp. Instead of building up their mindset, practices reportedly may have left players feeling demoralized and fatigued.
Too Much "Good on Good"?
Venables has often praised the value of "Good on Good" practices, where starters face off against starters to simulate game speed. While this approach is intended to prepare players for the rigors of SEC competition, it may also be pushing them beyond their limits.
Other programs, including those in the NFL and top-tier college football, have increasingly embraced sports science to optimize player health and performance. This includes reduced-contact practices, targeted workload management, and structured recovery periods. The Sooners’ injury-ridden seasons under Venables suggest that Oklahoma may be behind the curve in adopting these modern principles.
However, with a new NFL-style front office being implemented under longtime Sooners donor and former AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, and the recent hire of Jake Rosenberg — formerly the Vice President of Football Administration for the Philadelphia Eagles — Oklahoma might be poised to adopt practice habits more aligned with those of the NFL. If Venables can allow himself to embrace this new approach, it could lead to significant progress for the program.
Final Thoughts
Oklahoma’s 2024 season served as a painful reminder that old-school toughness alone won’t win games in today’s college football landscape. The best programs — including Alabama, Georgia, and even Michigan — have shown that a balance of toughness, recovery, and innovation is essential to sustained success.
Venables has proven he can build a dominant defense, but as the head coach of Oklahoma, he is responsible for the program as a whole. If his practice habits are contributing to the team’s inability to stay healthy and finish strong, they must be addressed.
The 2025 season is shaping up to be a pivotal year for Venables, with a mandate to deliver at least eight wins to keep his job. In the end, the question isn’t whether Oklahoma has the talent to contend — it’s whether the Sooners have the preparation and mindset to thrive in the SEC.
For Venables, time is running out to find that balance and unlock his team’s full potential. Will he take the necessary steps to evolve, or will Oklahoma remain mired in mediocrity? The clock is ticking.
Jason Watkins is the Founder and Publisher of HOF Media Group. Write to him at jw@hofmedia.us
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The SEC transition has been harsher on Brent Venables and the Oklahoma Sooners than anticipated, with a tough 1-4 start sparking fan concerns over Venables’ leadership.
Despite glimpses of offensive progress in their latest 26-14 loss at Ole Miss, Oklahoma’s 4-4 record has fueled doubts about Venables’ ability to steer the program through the SEC’s relentless competition. While injuries to key offensive players have created challenges, Venables’ hesitance to address coaching issues and poor communication within the offensive staff have only deepened the Sooners' struggles.
The failure of the offensive staff to communicate effectively and Venables’ hesitance to manage his coaching staff proactively have compounded the difficulties presented by mounting injuries.
Hesitancy on Display: The 4th-Down Decision
Venables' hesitation was encapsulated on Saturday, just six days after finally relieving Littrell of his duties as offensive coordinator: the 4th-and-4 timeout against Ole Miss late in the third quarter. Trailing by two scores, Oklahoma needed a jolt to stay in the game.
The situation was critical, but hardly complex. Coaches make these calls instinctively, often without a second thought. Instead, Venables used a timeout — only to ultimately bring out the punt team, a decision that deflated the offense and left fans scratching their heads.
If the choice was to punt, Venables could’ve delayed the game for a mere five yards instead of burning a precious timeout. If he intended to go for it, why not get his new play caller’s best play for the situation and make the call confidently?
Even if the Sooners fail to pick up the four yards, it would have signaled a willingness to take a chance — or give one — to an offense that has been less-than-inspiring all season.
In that one instance, Venables’ hesitation was as costly as a missed play. With the momentum squarely in favor of Lane Kiffin’s Rebels, burning that timeout only to punt sent the wrong signal to a young group on offense that is in serious need of someone who believes in them. Instead, he proved he didn’t trust them to get a measly four yards and extend a drive to get back into the game.
OU’s Identity Crisis on Offense
What we’re witnessing with OU’s offense is not merely a slump — it’s an identity crisis. Oklahoma fans are accustomed to high-powered, fast-paced offenses that can score almost at will. Littrell’s offense was anything but explosive for seven weeks, and Joe Jon Finley had a lackluster, scoreless latter half of Week 8, too.
To say the Sooners struggled to establish consistency would be an overwhelming understatement.
OU has struggled with untimely penalties and turnovers and suffered through a complete lack of innovation and creativity. The plays feel uninspired, lack direction and are devoid of explosive results.
As a unit, this offense is drawing comparisons to the infamous John Blake era, and has the numbers to back the comparison up. ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
There’s no other way to say it but bluntly … OU has no clear identity with its offense on the field.
The offensive woes go beyond play-calling; they’re structural. Reports from inside the Switzer Center suggest that there have been significant communication breakdowns within the offensive staff. Coaches have reportedly been on different pages regarding even the most fundamental elements, like blocking schemes. If those rumors are reaching the public, it’s safe to say Venables has known about these issues for some time.
A head coach — even a defensive-minded one like Venables — cannot allow such dysfunction to persist. These aren’t minor misunderstandings; they’re symptoms of a team struggling to find cohesion. Venables needed to address these issues early, before they became embedded in the team’s culture, but his delay in doing so has turned what might have been small fires into an inferno.
Mailed-In Hire: The Problem with Littrell
When Venables hired Seth Littrell, it felt like a placeholder decision. It wasn’t the bold, visionary hire that programs like Oklahoma should be making. Littrell’s track record showed some promise, but he had yet to prove himself as the kind of offensive mind that could elevate a program to championship contention.
Looking back on the decision to elevate Littrell and Finley, the hire seems more like an afterthought, a half-measure rather than a commitment to offensive excellence.
The results have been glaringly obvious. The offense lacks explosive creativity that OU fans are used to seeing, and that lack of energy has translated into downright unacceptable performances on the field, as evidenced by the Sooners’ historically bad statistical rankings in FBS football.
In just ten months on the job, Littrell and his offensive staff failed to the tune of numbers nobody in their right minds would have predicted following the Sooners’ 2023 season that saw the offense rank in the Top 5 in both Total Offense and Scoring Offense, and alone at the top of the Big 12 Conference in Points, Yards and Yards Per Play.
This despite having two of the most electric quarterbacks from their respective recruiting classes in the fold:
2023 5-star and Elite 11-winning Jackson Arnold of Denton Guyer, the 2023 Gatorade National HS Player of the Year and twice a Class 6A State Finalist in Texas.
And former Allen and Frisco Emerson (Texas) superstar Michael Hawkins, Jr., a Sooner legacy trained by Kyler's father Kevin Murray, and who, as a senior, accounted for 55 touchdowns and just three turnovers, leading Emerson to within a game of playing for a Texas State Championship in Class 5A.
Neither were able to sustain success under Littrell's tutelage, and rumors have swirled this week about none of OU's QBs feeling as though been properly developed by the now-fired Littrell as the QBs coach.
Both started a games after being inserted for the other following ineffective play, and both came into their first appearances under Littrell with confidence and swagger that appeared missing by the time they were pulled from games after committing three turnovers and allowing the Sooners to fall behind teams they likely could have beaten were it not for the turnovers they committed.
In other words, Seth Littrell had to go.
Saturday’s loss leaves Oklahoma at 4-4, staring down a potential losing season -- the second for Venables since he arrived after the abrupt departure of Lincoln Riley to USC.
These are unacceptable at Oklahoma, a school with one of the richest football traditions in the country. What makes it even more alarming is that no longer can OU fans blame the losses on a ineffectice, suoddr defense — OU seems to have mostly turned the corner on that side of the ball — but to say the fan base is frustrated, would again be a massive understatement.
Oklahoma fans don’t want excuses; they want results. And for a head coach like Venables, the time for excuses is running out.
The Next OC Hire: BV’s Defining Moment
After Finally punting the Littrell experiment — once again needing more time than most believe he should have — Venables again finds himself in the market for a new offensive coordinator — for the third time in three seasons.
This time, though, the choice Venables makes will ultimately define his second tenure in Norman, possibly his entire future as a head coach in college football. Mailing it in would be tantamount to a dereliction of duty in the eyes of Sooner Nation.
Venables MUST get this one right. He has to bring in someone with a proven track record of offensive success, someone who can bring energy, innovation, and a clear identity to the offense. Anything less than a home-run hire will only deepen the cracks in Venables’ foundation as head coach.
If Venables fails to find the right offensive coordinator, his job security will slip through those cracks, and his tenure as the Head Ball Coach of the Sooners will die in a whimper. Even if he builds a defense that resembles the ’85 Bears, it won’t matter if OU’s offense can’t score points.
The OU fan base is patient to a degree, but they expect excellence. For Venables, this is a make-or-break moment.
Either he finds the right offensive coordinator and proves he can lead a balanced, championship-caliber team, or he risks being shown the door in a year or less.
The Venables Paradox: Championship Defense, JV Offense
The irony of Venables’ situation is that, in many ways, Oklahoma has become Lincoln Riley’s reverse image. Under Riley, the Sooners fielded prolific offenses but were plagued by a porous defense that could never quite get them over the championship hump.
With Venables, it’s the opposite: the defense has shown promise, but the offense is currently in full-on spiral.
The head coach role, especially at Blue Blood OU, requires more than defensive expertise or recruiting prowess. It demands a complete vision, a well-rounded team, and an unwavering commitment to excellence on both sides of the ball.
For Venables to truly establish himself as a championship-level head coach, he has to be willing to delegate offense to someone who can make people forget he’s a defensive guru and simply call him “Coach.” To reach the heights that Oklahoma fans demand, Venables needs to be remembered not as a defensive mind but as a leader who fields a complete team. That requires taking risks, making tough decisions, and, most importantly, holding his staff to the highest possible standard.
It requires a decisive, confident vision for a championship future. The clock is ticking on Brent Venables’ tenure in Oklahoma, and his window for turning things around is narrowing.
Being the head coach at Oklahoma is an honor, but it’s also a responsibility. Venables needs to rise to that responsibility, or he and Lincoln Riley might both be in the job market this time next year.
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Jason Watkins is the Publisher at HOF Media Group and the Host of the HOF College Football Podcast. Reach him at jw@hofmedia.us