There’s a man already on Brent Venables’ coaching staff who has proven he can run a successful offense at Oklahoma, and it’s not the offensive coordinator. But he should be.
Now is the time for Kevin Wilson to be promoted from Assistant Head Coach for Offense to replace offense coordinator Ben Arbuckle as the Sooners’ play-caller before it’s too late, and OU’s College Football Playoff chances are completely gone. If nothing changes, and clearly nothing has, the Sooners cannot be considered a serious national title contender, which is the standard at Oklahoma.
Brent Venables needs a change at OC for Sooners to remain CFP contenders
Oklahoma fans reached a breaking point with Arbuckle on Saturday, as the then-No. 11 Sooners lost to unranked Michigan 17-10, because they couldn’t get anything going on offense. They would have been blown out if not for an elite defensive performance.
It’s the same thing we also saw week after week in 2025. Yes, the Sooners went 10-3 and made the CFP last season, but it was despite an offense that weighed it down. If OU had a functioning offense in 2025, Sooner Nation could have been celebrating a national championship for the first time in 25 years. Instead, the Sooners were again bounced in the first round, as OU scored just seven points in the second half against Alabama after storming out to a quick 17-0 lead.
Last season, the Sooners averaged 26.23 points per game, which ranked 79th in the FBS. That number dipped to 21.5 against SEC teams, which is the real measuring stick. The unit was held back by the worst rushing attack in the SEC and dealt with starting quarterback John Mateer breaking his right thumb four games into the season.
The offseason was then supposedly spent fixing those flaws with a revamped tight end group under new coach Jason Witten, an experienced offensive line, a talented group of running backs with two lead backs returning and an emphasis by the entire program to run the dang ball. Mateer was also expected to be better and healthy.
There seemed to be real change in Week 1, when the Sooners consistently lined up in 12-, 13- and even 14-personnel packages to bulk up run blocking in their 51-0 blowout of UTEP. Mateer was frequently under center and consistently threw out of play-action to open up the passing game. Arbuckle had questions, and seemingly found the correct answers.
But against real competition, Arbuckle took a time machine back to 2025 for Week 2. Mateer again spent most of his time in shotgun in wide sets. OU tried to use the passing game to open up the run. The running game never found any rhythm, but Arbuckle never gave it a chance to.
OU’s running backs combined for 13 total carries, while Mateer had 13 by himself. The Sooners averaged 3.4 yards per rush. The air attack wasn’t any better, with 189 passing yards and Mateer throwing a fourth-quarter interception that set up Michigan’s game-winning touchdown. Mateer rightfully got a lot of blame, but it’s also his OC who keeps trying to put everything on the shoulders of a player who can’t carry the load.
Right now, the state of OU’s offense has never been worse, at least not for this long, during most of the Venables era. The Sooners’ offense, though, was arguably at its absolute best when Wilson was in control from 2002 until finally leaving in 2010 to be Indiana’s head coach.
Oklahoma has not scored 28 offensive points vs a P4 team in their SEC era.
— Carter B 🕺🏽 (@CarterthePower) September 12, 2026
They have 9 games under 20 points.
Wilson was the OC for three national championship games with the Sooners, plus another with Ohio State in 2021. And unlike the Sooners under Venables, the offense was the catalyst to all the success.
He overall failed as a head coach with stints at Indiana and Tulsa, with a stop as Ohio State's OC between head-coaching tenures. After two seasons leading Tulsa, Venables brought Wilson back to Norman in 2025 as an offensive analyst to help mentor a young Arbuckle. He was promoted to Assistant Head Coach for Offense over the offseason.
Wilson’s offenses have scored points in every way. Twice, his unit featured a 3,500-yard passer, two 1,000-yard rushers and a 1,000-yard receiver. He produces talent, then actually utilizes it.
In 2008, with Sam Bradford as QB1, the Sooners broke an NCAA record for most points in a season with 716, which is still the second most in FBS history. Wilson won the Broyles Award as the top assistant in the nation that year.
This would become a lengthy article listing all the elite talent that has played in Wilson’s system and the video-game numbers his units produced. All that matters is that he’s a proven offensive coordinator.
Wilson got his first college OC job before Arbuckle was even born. He obviously still has the magic touch, considering it was just in 2022, when he was running a potent Ohio State offense that averaged 44.2 points per game.
This isn’t to say Arbuckle needs to be fired. At only 30 years old, he’s still a young coach with a lot of potential to reach. He should already be learning a lot from Wilson, and still could under him as a co-offensive coordinator, with Wilson calling plays.
The Sooners need results now, though. Oklahoma is not a place to develop, but to peak. Wilson is ready. Arbuckle is not. If hires are made based on resumes, there's no question who the correct answer is.
Ahead of last season, Venables bet on himself as a proven defensive coordinator, and it worked. Now, he needs to do the same on the other side of the ball with Wilson.
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