Oklahoma once again puts the schooner ahead of the horse with Brent Venables contract extension

Fitting for the Sooners name, but Oklahoma again just rushed to another contract extension for head coach Brent Venables before there was a big enough bang worth jumping for.

OU announced on Thursday that the university agreed to a new six-year contract with Venables that averages $10.5 million a year and added two more years to his previous deal to now go through 2031. It also included a hefty raise that, according to USA Today's database, now makes Venables the sixth-highest paid coach in college football after being No. 23 in 2025 at just over $7.5 million.

There's no doubt Venables deserved a bigger payday than a long list of coaches who were ahead of him, but this still feels like an overreaction from OU after Venables just led the Sooners to the College Football Playoff last season after being on the hot seat this time last year. He was already locked in through 2029 and no one was trying to come poach him away. This did not benefit the Sooners, but only hindered them if things go south again.

Brent Venables still had more to prove before another contact extension

Recency bias will lead many fans to immediately conclude that this contract extension for Venables was well-earned. He did, after all, just take control of the defense and turned it into the driving force that got the Sooners through a daunting regular-season schedule at 10-2 and hosting a CFP game at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in 2025.

Now, the Sooners look to be in an even better position for 2026, and another 10-win season would be worthy of an extension, but nothing is guaranteed in college football. The way the Sooners have recruited also gives hope for the future. But OU just paid the man based on a blueprint, not the finished product.

An investment through 2031, five years from now, should not be so nearsighted. A lot can go wrong just in 2026.

It's easy to forget after such a triumph turnaround that Venables was fighting to even keep his job a year ago after another losing season in 2024. Even then, OU would have owed Venables a $36.3 million buyout if it fired him, and now that number inflates even more. Now what happens if 2026 doesn't go as planned?

No matter the excuses of Lincoln Riley gutting the program or OU joining the SEC, Venables has still posted a losing record in half of the seasons he's been in charge. That put him in the same company of John Blake as one of only two OU coaches this century with multiple losing seasons during their tenures. Blake didn't survive after the second. Granted, Venables reached 10 wins in the other two seasons.

Venables in Year 1 went 6-7, which no matter the circumstances, was unacceptable by OU standards in the Big 12. He then turned things around and went 10-3 before the Sooners left the Big 12 for the SEC. The pattern then continued when the Sooners went 6-7 and needed a miracle upset over Alabama just to reach the Armed Forces Bowl in 2024 before last year's impressive turnaround. OU had also given Venables his first extension ahead of that 2024 letdown.

That all makes Venables a career .615 head coach at 32-20. That number dips to .529 in conference play, going 18-16 between the Big 12 and SEC. It's also worth noting he's 0-4 in the postseason and 1-3 against Texas in the Red River Rivalry. The Sooners haven't even scored a touchdown at the Cotton Bowl in two years.

There are no championships. There is no dominating Texas. There hasn't even been consistency.

The only coaches during the modern college football era since 1946 to coach OU longer than nine seasons, which is how long Venables' contract has him leading the Sooners, are Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops. All three won at least one title, dominated Texas and their conference, and had only one losing season at the most. That's what it takes to lead Oklahoma, and any blue blood, long-term.

I believe Brent Venables is the right coach for the Sooners' future. And I honestly hope he is. But he still had more to prove before getting a second extension in four years.

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