This time last year, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables had one of the hottest seats in college football, but a lot can change in a year, and some people's takes are still stuck in the past.
College football media personality Josh Pate recently released his updated rankings of the Top 10 head coaches in the SEC based on "relative on-field performance," "talent acquisition" and "etc" as a tiebreaker, whatever that all includes. Pate also admitted he heavily leans toward recency, which should have actually made Venables' case even stronger after just leading his Sooners to the College Football Playoff last season.
Pate placed Venables right in the middle of the pack of all 16 SEC coaches at No. 8 behind some head-scratching coaches, even based on Pate's own criteria. Ahead of Venables were Kirby Smart (Georgia), Kalen DeBoer (Alabama), Steve Sarkisian (Texas), Mike Elko (Texas A&M), Lane Kiffin (LSU, for now), Clark Lea (Vanderbilt) and Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri), respectively. The only two below Venables in the top 10 were Tennessee's Josh Heupel and Florida's Jon Sumrall, who has yet to coach a game in the SEC after coming from Tulane.
Read more: Brent Venables sounds like he already has the Sooners' starting defense figured out
Updated SEC Head Coach Rankings pic.twitter.com/n7hHeK4ccF
— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) June 22, 2026
Brent Venables has elevated as a Top 5 SEC head coach while leading the Oklahoma Sooners
No sane fan, unless blatantly biased, can argue against Smart topping the list. The SEC has been his conference and everyone else is just living in it until proven otherwise. However, the rest of the rankings get a little murky, especially when it comes to Venables.
Venables just led his team to the CFP. The two coaches right above him -- Drinkwitz and Lea -- can't say the same. That right there should jump Venables at least two spots and right outside the Top 5. Venables has never gone head-to-head against Lea, but is 1-1 against Drinkwitz after beating the Tigers last season. Again, recency benefits Venables.
As painful as it is to admit, Venables does not deserve Kiffin or Sarkisian's spots in the Top 5. Both have had his number and have gotten to the CFP, although Kiffin has never actually coached a team during the playoff after ditching Ole Miss for LSU last season right at the beginning of the Rebels' quest to win a national title.
But then there's DeBoer at No. 2. Venables' teams are 2-1 against DeBoer's the past two seasons, and Venables just flat out out-coached DeBoer to pull off massive upsets in both wins. DeBoer is still benefiting from what Nick Saban left behind at Alabama, but even with that talent and resources, Venables' worst team yet beat the Crimson Tide in 2024 to keep them out of the CFP, then last season, the Sooners waltzed into Tuscaloosa and ended the longest active home winning streak in college football. It took DeBoer a second chance in the same season to finally notch his first win over Venables.
DeBoer, if wearing a different logo on his hat, would never be considered a Top 5 head coach at this point. Even Sark and Kiffin belong above him if we're going off SEC success.
Simply, no matter what list Pate makes, Venables, though, has quietly proven to be a Top 5 head coach in the deepest conference in college football.
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