Earlier this week, Oklahoma made a much-anticipated change at the critical offensive coordinator position, dismissing Ben Arbuckle after less than two seasons. The person head coach Brent Venables tapped to fill in at the position for the Sooners' final four games of the season may have surprised a number of people.
Most experts believed it would be Kevin Wilson, a former offensive coordinator at OU under Bob Stoops and former head coach at Indiana and Tulsa. He's now an offensive assistant at Oklahoma and seemed like the logical choice to move into the OC role. Instead, it was tight ends coach Jason Witten who was named to replace Arbuckle.
Witten, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer and perennial All-Pro performer with the Dallas Cowboys for 16 seasons, is in his first season as a college coaching assistant and first year at Oklahoma.
"He has an incredible wealth of knowledge," Venables said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday. "His communication skills are elite. He's built trust and real relationships with our entire staff, but also the players, which is important. They're going to follow people they believe in."
Normally, significant changes like this are made at the end of the season and not in midstream, when it is difficult in a short time frame to effect any more than incremental improvement or positive changes, having to work with what is already in place.
Can we expect anything different from Oklahoma offense with Jason Witten pulling the levers?
So what can we realistically expect to see in the Oklahoma offense on Saturday against Florida? Witten inherits an offense that ranks near the bottom of the barrel nationally in virtually every aspect of offensive football: 108th in scoring, 128th in rushing, 96th in third-down conversions, and 124th in red-zone offense.
All eyes will clearly be on quarterback John Mateer, who is still expected to start, and his supporting cast to see what changes in play calls, personnel groupings, and other adjustments Witten will make in trying to ignite a spark in an offense that has been lifeless and dying on the vine for much of the season.
It is reasonable to assume that Witten will continue to value the big role the tight ends play in the offense, not just as reliable and productive pass targets, but also in the blocking schemes for the run game. Everyone knows you cannot win games if you aren't able to sustain drives and put points on the scoreboard. The Sooners have not been able for a couple of years now to run the ball well enough to gain balance in the offense and keep the defense unsettled and guessing.
Running the ball more effectively will continue to be a high priority, as well as ball security and getting Mateer, or whoever the Oklahoma quarterback ends up being by the end, more comfortable with and in position to make the plays that are there for the taking and have to be made to be successful.
What we won't see on Saturday is a total makeover of the offense. Over the final four games, however, we should start seeing some improvement in offensive production, even if it necessitates a quarterback change to shake things up further and see what someone else can do when given the opportunity.
There are a lot of moving parts to a football offense and the levels of success it is able to achieve. It certainly starts with the head coach and the offensive coordinator for putting the plans, preparation, and plays in place that will position a team to win a football game. But it ultimately comes down to the personnel on the field to bring all the planning and preparation to fruition through execution.
"I think that's important players see that they're part of that," Venables said. "Ultimately, the product is going to be a byproduct of the staff's readiness and preparedness. At the end of the day, you've got to get guys to play well, too. There has to be an execution piece that's important, and everybody plays a role in that."
Venables believes the Sooners are closer to turning things around than many believe with the talent they have on hand.
"We've recruited well. We have some good young players foundationally, some of the best young players in college football, that are on our offensive side of the ball," he said.
Now it's all up to Witten to see if he can do what Arbuckle and the two previous Sooner offensive coordinators could not: restore Oklahoma's offensive presence to competitive relevance and respect.
"There's nothing easy about it," Venables acknowledged, but after visiting with the other offensive coaches and the offense as a whole, it quickly became clear that Witten was the most ready and able to do the job, and he was eager and excited to take it on.
The Sooner head coach has full faith and trust that his new offensive coordinator, even if only on an interim basis, has what it takes to enable the Oklahoma offense to demonstrate more consistency and put more points on the scoreboard in the month of November.
Then we'll see how things evolve from there.
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