Oklahoma reportedly is close to naming a new offensive coordinator, according to multiple sources, and the next 24 hours would be a critical time to do so with the early signing window for 2025 recruits opening on Wednesday.
Brent Venables, in his postgame comments following the Sooners' loss over the weekend to LSU, said, in the next few days or so, we're going to hire a new coach on offense and get that sorted out."
The OU search for a new offensive coordinator began in mid-October after Seth Littrell was fired following the Sooners embarrassing 34-3 home loss to South Carolina. Venables acknowledged last week that the exciting win over Alabama doesn't change the trajectory of the search. "The job isn't gonna to be any more attractive than it already has been," he said. "We got a line all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico for this opening."
Although the list of potential candidates has naturally shortened since the search began, the buzz here in the 11th hour has largely settled in on two and potentially three names.
The final choice appears to be between Washington State offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and Tulane offensive coordinator Joe Craddock, with Arbuckle believed to be the primary target.
Arbuckle has been the OC at Washington State for the past two seasons. Before that he was at Western Kentucky, where he directed a 2022 Hilltopper offense that finished seventh in the country in total offense, 15th in scoring offense and second in passing offense. In his first season at WSU in 2023,
Arbuckle took the Cougars' offense from 94th in total offense to 35th nationally and 45th in passing offense to fourth. During the 2023 season, he helped develop quarterback Cam Ward, who transferred to Miami ahead of this season and for a long while was considered a leading candidate in the 2024 Heisman Trophy watch.
Washington State finished the 2024 season with an 8-4 record and was 22nd nationally in total offense, averaging 440 yards per game. The Cougars' quarterback is John Mateer, a redshirt-sophomore who threw for over 3,000 yards and 29 touchdowns and rushed for another 826 along with 15 rushing TDs this season. If Arbuckle were the final choice for the Oklahoma OC job, Mateer might choose to follow him to OU.
Craddock is in his first season at Tulane. The Green Wave are 9-2 this season and playing in the American Athletic Conference championship on Saturday against Army. One of those two losses was to Oklahoma, which prevailed 34-15 in Norman earlier this season.
Craddock led an offense that ranked 34th among FBS teams, averaging 429 yards per game. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Clemson in 2013 and 2014, at the same time Venables was defensive coordinator on the staff there under head coach Dabo Swinney.
From Clemson, Craddock went to SMU as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach (2015-17) and to Arkansas (2018-19) and UAB (2022-23) in the same capacity.
An outlier in this process, but still potentially in play, is Buster Faulkner, who is currently the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at Georgia Tech. He has been in that post for the past two season. For two seasons before that, he was the OC and quarterbacks coach at Georgia under Kirby Smart. Georgia Tech ranked 35th this season in total offense, right behind Tulane.