There was a lot of hot-seat discussion focused on Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables heading into 2025.
Venables was entering Year 4 as the coach of the Sooners. In two of his first three seasons, Oklahoma finished with a 6-7 record. When they finished 6-7 in 2022, it marked the first time the Sooners had a losing record since 1998.
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So, Venables was likely coaching for his job in 2025. If he didn’t win at a high level, Oklahoma would face a difficult decision. But Venables responded with a 10-2 season and the team’s first College Football Playoff berth since 2019.
College football analyst and former Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray appeared on “The Hard Count,” where he stated that last season’s run has taken the pressure off of Venables.
“I’ve been very, not anti, but I’ve questioned him as a head coach,” Murray said. “How successful could he be consistently as a head coach? We even saw some ups and downs last year, but the fact that they were able to get to where they got to, to get to the playoff… shows you that maybe that pressure is off the head coach… I’m anticipating that Oklahoma as a program is elevated.”
To Murray’s point, coaching pressure often influences how a team performs throughout a season. Players are aware of external expectations, especially when their coach is under scrutiny, which can affect how a program handles adversity.
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The question moving forward is whether Oklahoma’s success came from that urgency or whether the program has genuinely turned a corner. If Venables has stabilized the program, the Sooners may be in a position to sustain playoff contention moving forward.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Aaron Murray says pressure is off Brent Venables at Oklahoma
