The fact that Brent Venables' coaching reputation is built solely on the success he has had in producing championship-level college defenses doesn't mean that, as a head coach, he can't have a team with a strong, or at the very least, competitive presence both on offense and defense.
The same can be said, of course, for a head coach who comes in with a background geared toward offense. Very rare is the head coach who brings specific expertise in all three phases of the game. What he does need to bring, however, is the leadership skill to create a winning culture and the comfort and confidence to surround himself with coaches and coordinators who not only provide the required expertise but also bring in and develop the best players available to produce the expected results.
Venables was brought in ahead of the 2022 season for the express purpose of improving an Oklahoma defense that had suffered a dramatic free fall under offensive-minded head coach Lincoln Riley and was as bad as the Sooner offense is this season on Venables' watch.
Finding a complementary mix between offense and defense has eluded Oklahoma with the past two head coaches
Oklahoma has managed to pull off a complete role reversal in going from Riley to Venables. The Sooners have traded one huge weakness for another. Venables deserves credit for transforming the OU defense from one of college football's worst to one of the country's best and most respected units, much like Riley did on the offensive side.
It is possible, however, to have it both ways, and Oklahoma has already proven that.
Bob Stoops inherited a badly broken Oklahoma football program from John Blake when he became Sooner head coach in 1999. A year later, he had the Sooners playing in and winning the BCS National Championship Game. He did so by putting together a team and support staff that planned, prepped for, and executed complementary football on both offense and defense. And, oh, by the way, Stoops had spent his entire career before becoming a head coach playing and coaching defense.
Stoops brought his brother, Mike, and Venables with him from Kansas State as defensive coordinators and hired Mike Leach, followed by Mark Mangino and Kevin Wilson, as offensive coordinators. Between 2000 and 2004, Oklahoma was 60-7 under Stoops and appeared in three national championship games.
The offensive unit Stoops inherited from Blake ranked 101st out of 112 Division I teams in 1998, averaging 16.3 points a game. In Stoops' first season, in 1999, the Oklahoma offense ranked 8th in the country and averaged 36.8 points a game. Over the next five seasons, the Sooners never had an offense or defense that ranked lower than 27th nationally.
So it is not at all unrealistic for a defensive-minded head coach to have good offensive teams. Alabama's Nick Saban and Georgia's Kirby Smart are other classic examples of defensive coaches who have had not just good, but great offensive teams. It all comes down to who you surround yourself with.
When there is a breakdown anywhere in the operation, the responsibility is on the staff to come up with the right adjustments and fixes to alleviate the problems. The head coach is obviously part of the problem-solving process, but as the problem continues to persist, as it has this season with the digression that's taken place with the Oklahoma offense, the ultimate accountability rests clearly on the head coach.
That's where we are now with Venables -- in his fifth season as head coach of the Sooners and just a month removed from a contract extension that runs through 2031 -- and an offense that has sprung so many leaks that it's probably going to require a complete overhaul to get things turned around and headed back in a positive direction.
Venables made a good hire in bringing in Jeff Lebby as offensive coordinator in his first two seasons in 2022 and '23, but Lebby left after the 2023 season to become head coach at Mississippi State. The Sooners were 13th nationally in total offense and 32nd in scoring offense in 2022, and 4th and 3rd, respectively, in those same two categories the following season.
It should be noted that Dillon Gabriel was at quarterback in both of those seasons, which made a big difference in the offense, especially with consistency and production.
Venables has made three offensive coordinator hires and gone through three starting quarterbacks since Lebby left, and the offense has gotten progressively worse, to the point that it has almost become the laughing stock of college football.
The buck stops at Venables' desk. He will survive this season as head coach, but his future beyond that appears pretty iffy if he doesn't make some tough decisions regarding his offensive coaching staff.
Tight ends coach Jason Witten and running backs coach Deland McCullough should be given more than one season to show what they can do, and Kevin Wilson should be retained and possibly given an expanded role. But everyone else on the offensive coaching staff should be put on notice.
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