Bob Stoops has always been a defensive guy, but he also appreciates what an offense with the right parts and direction can do.
After a second disappointing sub-.500 season in the last three years, Oklahoma coach Brent Venables knows how important it is to achieve a Sooner turnaround in 2025. And if that is to be achieved, he knows the improvement has to be offense driven.
Offensive upgrades in both player personnel and in the coaching staff have been the focus this offseason.
The Sooners brought in Ben Arbuckle from Washington State as the new offensive coordinator and, largely as a result, they were also able to acquire quarterback John Mateer from the same Washington State team. Mateer was considered the No. 1 quarterback in the transfer portal.
Under Arbuckle's leadership and with Mateer at quarterback, Washington State's offense ranked among the best in the country in several categories, including points (38.8 per game) and explosive plays, two aspects of the game that were gravely missing in the Sooners' offensive attack last season.
Mateer, a dual-threat quarterback, has two years of elligibilty remaining. He led the FBS in total touchdowns in 2024 with 44 (29 passing and 15 more on the ground).
The combination of Arbuckle and Mateer is the single-biggest reason for the optimism around a much improved OU offense next season, but the Sooners have also added skill position upgrades from the transfer portal and the 2025 recruiting class.
Oklahoma made more news regarding the offense this week with the addition of former OU offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson as an offensive analyst. Wilson was part of Bob Stoops' OU coaching staff from 2002 to 2011 during some of the best years and teams in the Stoops' era at Oklahoma. Venables was part of the same staff while Wilson was there.
No one was more pumped up to hear that news than Stoops himself. On his weekly radio show with KREF 1400 in Norman this week, Stoops spoke highly of his former offensive coordinator.
"I think it's great," Stoops said. "I love Kevin Wilson. Everybody knows the nine years he spent with us. I think the last five or six he was offensive coordinator, set records... with Sam Bradford, I guess it would have been 2008. Last five games of the year over 60 points. He's got great personality, easy to work with, really smart guy. He'd be an asset to anybody to, you know, have in your building."
Bob Stoops is a big fan of Kevin Wilson and thinks he will be an asset to the OU football program.
— The REF (@KREFsports) February 18, 2025
“He’d be an asset to anybody, to have in your building and hopefully that’s the way it works out for him.” pic.twitter.com/sNUOL5othI
Oklahoma's offense in 2008 set a then-NCAA record, scoring 716 points. Wilson won the Broyles Award that season as the best assistant coach in college football. He went on to be the head coach at Indiana, then the offensive coordinator at Ohio State after leaving OU following the 2010 season.
Most recently, Wilson was the head coach at nearby Tulsa the past two seasons.
One thing is certain, Venables and his staff are not sitting idly by this offseason, letting things take their natural course. They're working hard and diligently to change what the future holds for Oklahoma football, all with the highly focused objective of making Year 2 in the SEC look better than Year 1.
That's what Sooner Nation is hoping for, as well.