Oklahoma football: Colin Cowherd belies OU’s expected 2023 improvement
By Chip Rouse
Sports talk show personality Colin Cowherd, the king of the Oklahoma football contrarians, is at it again in casting a black cloud over the Sooners.
This time, the controversial and outspoken sports talk show host is using Oklahoma’s projected third-place finish in the 2023 Big 12 Preseason Football Media Poll as a jumping-off point to once more blast the Sooners for the hiring of Brent Venables.
“What the Big 12 is saying,” Cowherd claimed last week on his syndicated “The Herd” program, “is, “We’ve got a coaching issue,” inferring that since Venables took over for Riley, the once dominant Sooners are now but a shell of their former self.
“Lincoln Riley was number one in the (Big 12) preseason poll five out of five years,” argued Cowherd. “Turns around a mess of a program in one year. Brent Venables takes over. Now, a deep third.”
Feel bad for @OU_Football USC gonna need about 18 months and they’ll be flying past em, around em, over em. This recruiting class will be other worldly. Best offensive HC in college w these weapons. Can’t quit smiling
— Colin Cowherd (@ColinCowherd) April 19, 2022
I’m not sure where Cowherd got the idea that the program the man to whom Sooner fans now simply refer to as “Muleshoe” (in reference to Riley’s hometown in Texas) handed over to Venables was a championship quality team. OU finished third in the Big 12 in Riley’s final season and were No. 2 in the 2022 Big 12 Preseason Football Poll.
Cowherd closed out his latest attack on the Oklahoma football program, citing how ridiculously soft the Sooners’ 2023 schedule is.
"“I know you think I’m anti-Oklahoma,” Cowherd said to his TV viewers and simulcasted radio listeners. That schedule is so bad that Brent Venables is gonna stumble into 11 wins.“It’s a terrible schedule,” he continued. “And then they’re (the OU fans) are gonna feel like, ‘Hey, we got our guy.’ And they think they’re gonna pivot right into the SEC.”"
The implication from all of that, of course, is that 10 or 11 wins with that schedule is an absolute must or their will be an even bigger price to pay within a program and a fan base that has very high winning standards and does not accept mediocrity.
Cowherd claims he is not anti-Oklahoma, but ever since Lincoln Riley skipped town in Norman for what Cowherd contends is the smartest move he could have ever made, the radio and TV talk show host has had nothing positive to say about Brent Venables or Oklahoma.
https://twitter.com/DustyDvoracek/status/1516496372823908357?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1516496372823908357%7Ctwgr%5Ec7ac5a826de016b6211c4d0129d1e5d2af334f97%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heartlandcollegesports.com%2F2022%2F04%2F19%2Fcolin-cowherd-continues-to-use-oklahoma-as-a-catalyst-for-clicks%2F
Cowherd has seemingly taken every opportunity to praise Riley, who he calls the best offensive head coach in college football, while rebuking Venables.
Right now, Venables and the OU program are an easy target, but they can turn that around by flipping the script and delivering double-digit wins this season. Regardless of what Cowherd had to say, you can only play the games on your schedule, and a win is still a win. Collect 10 or 11 of them and that’s a successful season by any measure.