The good tidings and roar of approval when Brent Venables was officially introduced one year ago today as the new Oklahoma football head coach were probably more unconditional than they are 12 months later.
When Venables was hired on Dec. 5, 2021, the Sooner football team was coming off a 10-2 regular season and a No. 16 national ranking and headed to the Alamo Bowl to face the 14th-ranked Oregon Ducks, the second-best team in the Pac-12 Conference.
OU defeated Oregon 47-32 in the Alamo Bowl with legendary Sooner head coach Bob Stoops handling the bowl coaching duties in the early days of the coaching transition following the sudden desertion of Lincoln Riley.
Despite the wild dust storm that sprang up in the wake of Riley’s sudden departure, optimism was running high throughout the Sooner Nation with Venables on board that success would continue for the Oklahoma football program and that the solution was in hand for the team’s one big weakness: the defense.
Venables was hired on Dec. 5 last year, and the following day he was formally introduced to the OU student body with fans, the media and current and former Sooner players in attendance.
“What makes this job so special and attractive for me is the cohesion, the commitment, the alignment, direction and focus of this program,” Venables said during his formal introduction.
"“It’s a university-wide leadership focused on excellence in everything we do. Excellence (in the football program) has been established by Coach Wilkinson, Coach Switzer and Coach Stoops. Three Hall of Fame coaches who are examples of what the standard looks like,” Venables said.“It’s my job,” he said, “to relentlessly defend that standard and build upon that standard.”"
Venables’ remarks at the introductory event a year ago included a pledge that fans would see an “exciting, fast, explosive offense combined with a physical, punishing, relentless, suffocating defense.”
The 2022 Oklahoma football season did not turn out as most Sooner fans had expected. A 6-6 regular-season record does not represent the Oklahoma standard of excellence that Venables described after his hiring one year ago.
The OU offense this season did have its moments of “exciting, fast and explosive,” but it was far too inconsistent compared to what Sooner fans have grown accustomed to from an Oklahoma offense. And, to be brutally honest, the defense didn’t hold a candle to the words Venables used to describe what it would look like. Perhaps the new Oklahoma head coach meant to say “could and eventually will” look like.
The problem is, patience is not so much a virtue among highly conditioned Sooner fans as it is a feeling of anxiousness and unease.
This is not to say that in the coming seasons under Venables, the offensive and defensive performance will mirror the image he has described. What we are saying, however, is that the 2022 season was highly disappointing and well below the historic standard that defines what Oklahoma football is all about.
Venables said during one of his weekly press conferences this fall that he does not allow pressure to get to him, that he actually thrives on pressure and adversity. It’s probably safe to say that if things don’t appreciably improve for Venables and the Sooners next season, the Sooner fan base and other critics will be singing. perhaps even screaming, a much different tune.