The Oklahoma Sooners are entering a pivotal season in 2025. After a 6-7 record in 2024, the fallout that could come if OU under-delivers again could be massive. Head coach Brent Venables is walking on thin ice after another losing season.
In an offseason in which few Power Four programs made head coaching changes (six changes in total out of 68 teams), plenty of coaches are under the microscope heading into 2025. Two of On3 Sports’ college football analysts, Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman, identified Venables as one of the coaches under the most pressure this season on the Andy and Ari podcast.
“If Brent Venables has a bad year at Oklahoma, that would be three bad years in four seasons,” Staples said. “He would be fired, I’m telling you that right now. They already hired a GM (Jim Nagy) who doesn’t answer to Venables. It’s a very precarious situation.”
The duo outlined a few other rival coaches who are under big-time pressure, including Florida’s Billy Napier, LSU’s Brian Kelly, and USC’s Lincoln Riley. They had harsh words for the job the former OU coach has done at Southern Cal over the last three seasons.
“If USC and Oklahoma are very cheap stocks to buy right now, I’m definitely buying Oklahoma’s stock going into this year,” Wasserman said. “Oklahoma could be awesome this year. I don’t think that there’s any chance that USC is awesome this year. Oklahoma seems trended upward at least. It might not work, but with their offensive line fixes, hopefully their entire receiver room won’t be injured this year, and you get who I think is probably going to be one of the four best quarterbacks in college football this year (John Mateer), you have actual, tangible improvements that you can cling to.”
Oklahoma’s offense was one of the biggest problems that led to least year’s downfall, but the additions of Mateer and new offense coordinator Ben Arbuckle are moves that Sooner Nation hopes will get that side of the ball back on track. The offensive line and wide receiver rooms still have question marks, but there’s hope that the offense can carry its own weight again.
As for Venables, he’s taking over the defensive play-calling this season for a unit that lost a lot of production but returns a lot of talent. He’s under undeniable pressure to get the ship steered back in the right direction in 2025, but he’s made some moves this offseason to have the opportunity to put his best foot forward and rebound in a big way this fall.
This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Oklahoma has a chance to be much better in 2025 per On3 Experts
