Even with the Sooners at 5-1 and in the top-15 in the country, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables isn’t done fighting for his job yet.
Venables started the 2025 season with one of the hottest seats in college football, but after a 5-0 start, especially with a win over Michigan, his seat cooled. Then the Sooners suffered their first loss last week to Texas. There’s no overreaction from one game, but it was a reality check for those who narrowed their view from the bigger picture.
Brent Venables still on hot seat after loss to Texas
With the 5-1 start included, Venables is 27–18 since taking over the Sooners before the 2022 season and 13-15 in conference play between the Big 12 and the SEC. He’s had two losing seasons after going 6-7 last year and 6-7 in his debut.
As if the loss in the Red River Rivalry didn’t conjure it up enough, Venables mentioned this week how OU used to destroy everyone in the Big 12, but as the Big 12 pointed out in a response, the Sooners haven’t dominated any conference under Venables. When Venables mentioned “the old Big 12 days,” he was apparently referencing to before he was in charge.
Coach Venables lost eight Conference games in his two seasons in the Big 12 https://t.co/O4eLzaJ3lo
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) October 14, 2025
Conference wins and rivalry victories are job security. But Venables has neither. He lost the final Bedlam in 2023 and after last week dropped to 1-3 against Texas. And the Sooners failed to score a touchdown in all three of Venables’ losses in the Red River Rivalry.
It was just one loss and the No. 14 Sooners still have everything in front of them, but the 23-6 disappointment to Texas again turned up the heat of Venables’ seat.
At the time, 5-0 seemed impressive. Now it’s clear that was the easiest part of the Sooners’ schedule, especially with Michigan and Auburn no longer ranked. The other three wins were against an FCS squad and two Group of Five teams.
The Sooners travel to South Carolina on Saturday for the last unranked opponent left on OU’s schedule, with five straight currently ranked foes on the slate after that. That’s plenty of opportunity for the Sooners to rise as national contenders, and Venables to even go from hot seat to candidate for coach of the year. However, if the Sooners suffer a second loss to the Gamecocks, Venables could not even get the chance to turn things around the rest of the way.
For those that think it’s preposterous to fire a coach midseason after just two losses, Penn State just parted ways with James Franklin after three straight losses, and Franklin just took the Nittany Lions to the College Football Playoff last season. Penn State was the No. 3 team in the country just over three weeks ago.
But when a program with national championship aspirations knows being No. 1 won’t be the result under current leadership, then there’s no need in wasting time. And OU should have the same standards as Penn State, if not higher.