There is little question the 2025 college football season is a pivotal year for the Oklahoma football program.
After two losing seasons in Brent Venables' three years as head coach of the Sooners, there is little tolerance for another sub-par season by Oklahoma standards that leaves more questions than answers.
Prior to Venables' arrival as the replacement for Lincoln Riley, the Sooners had not experienced a losing season for almost a quarter of a century. In fact, since the Bud Wilkinson era, which began in 1947, Oklahoma has had just seven losing seasons in the last 78 years, and two of them were under Venables.
Can Brent Venables, Sooners right the ship in second season in SEC?
A number of major adjustments have taken place since Oklahoma played its final game of the 2024 season, including the hiring of new offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and a couple new defensive assistants, plus the addition of a general manager position with Jim Nagy.
The Sooners also have added some important pieces out of the transfer portal, none more important to OU's turnaround opportunity than quarterback John Mateer, who joined his offensive coordinator at Washington State, Arbuckle, in coming to Oklahoma.
Washington State's offense flew under the radar a little bit last season, but there is little question Wazzu delivered plenty of heat and firepower on the offensive end with Mateer at the controls. The Cougars finished sixth nationally in scoring, and Mateer ranked eighth in yards per completion and 13th in touchdown passes. In addition, he ran for 826 yards and 15 rushing touchdowns.
Oklahoma has long been known for high-octane offenses, but last season, the Sooner offense was among the worst in college football. OU ranked 110th nationally in scoring and 126th in total yards per game. A Sooner offense had not performed that badly in a quarter of a century.
Mateer replaces former five-star QB prospect Jackson Arnold, who failed to live up to all of the high expectations thrust upon him through the recruiting process and transferred to Auburn after last season.
Sometimes all it takes is one strategic move or spark to change everything, and the Sooners are hoping that the addition of Arbuckle and Mateer will be the tipping point to Oklahoma's anemic offense last season.
Several national experts believe Mateer will make a major difference in OU's offense efficiency and effectiveness this fall. Both Paul Finebaum of the SEC Network and Joel Klatt have projected the Sooners to be much improved offensively in 2025 and cited new OC Arbuckle and Mateer as major catalysts in that improvement.
On3's Ari Wasserman and Andy Staples ranked Mateer as one of the top-10 quarterbacks in 2025. Wasserman has the OU transfer QB No. 4 on his top-10 list, and Staples placed Mateer at No. 6.
But we all know that a quarterback is just one player on an 11-man offensive unit, and he is only as good as the players around him. It is also true that quarterback was just one of the problems contributing to the Sooners' disappointing 2024 season.
The offensive line, lacking experience and continuity, was a prime concern and contributor to OU's offensive woes of a year ago, but the Sooners have one of the best offensive line coaches in college football in Bill Bedenbaugh, and this situation looks to be significantly better in the coming season.
Both experience and O-line continuity have been addressed with returning starters Troy Everett, Jacob Sexton, Logan Howland, Heath Ozaeta and Febechi Nwaiwu, plus additional experience and depth with transfer portal additions Derek Simmons from Western Carolina, and a pair of Stanford transfers in centerJake Maikkula and tackle Luke Bakienko.
The Sooners also added blue-chip freshman offensive tackles Michael Fasusi and Ryan Fodge, whom one or both could potentially find themselves in the starting lineup at some point in the season.
Wide receiver is another area that plagued Oklahoma with lower-than-expected availability and production last season. Injuries were a prime contributor, of course, but of those receivers who were able to get on the field, the next-man-up productivity never really materialized.
No OU wide receiver caught more than 31 passes or had more than three TD receptions, which is unfathomable for a passing offense that just a few seasons ago was one of the best in the country.
The Sooners were without their projected top-five wide receivers all of or most of last season due to injury. Three of those receivers -- Andrel Anthony, Jalil Farooq and Nic Anderson -- have transferred, and health already continues to be an issue in the wide receiver room.
Deion Burks is the best of the returning receivers, but he missed the second half of last season because of an injury. Arkansas Pine-Bluff transfer Jovannie Gibson was impressive in spring practice, but he suffered a broken leg late in spring practice. Venables said Gibson should be ready to go to open the season.
OU is also hoping to have Jayden Gibson back in 2025. The Sooners were expecting big things from the 6-foot-5 wide receiver last season, but a preseason injury kept him out all year.
The redshirt junior unfortunately suffered a setback in his recovery this spring, making his status uncertain for the fall. Another transfer, Isaiah Sategna from Arkansas, looked good this spring, and talented freshman Elijah Thomas could contribute right away.
Tight end was a problem last season and remains so for 2025. In fact, the deficiency at tight end may be even worse this season. The Sooners lost their top-two tight ends from last season -- Bauer Sharp and Jake Roberts -- and former highly regarded TE recruit Davon Mitchell entered the transfer portal. Suffice to say, OU is still looking for a tight end in the portal.
It's pretty obvious that the Sooners didn't have much of a passing offense last season. It certainly didn't help that the running back position, probably the deepest on the roster, wasn't much better. None of the running backs were able to assume the lead role.
Junior Jovantae Barnes and freshman Xavier Robinson had a couple of big rushing games, but the consistency wasn't there. The same can be said for former No. 1 running back recruit Taylor Tatum and Gavin Sawchuk, who ran for 744 yards and 6.2 yards per carry in 2023, but was a virtual no-show in 2024 with 128 rushing yards in nine games.
The Sooners added California transfer Jaydn Ott as a high-potential answer at running back. Ott, rated the top running back in the spring transfer portal, battled injuries last season, but was one of the country's top running backs in 2023, rushing for 1,315 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Oklahoma lost several starters off of a top-25 defense a year ago, but the Sooners still possess plenty of talent on that side of the ball and got big news this week when former five-star defensive tackle David Stone announced he was withdrawing his name from the transfer portal and returning to OU for the 2025 season.
Venables has said he will lead the defense this coming season, so the belief is it should continue to perform at a high level.
The bottom line is Oklahoma, on paper at least, should be better in 2025. Venables' job, after all, largely depends on it.
The wildcard, however, is that the schedule that resulted in a 6-7 record overall and just 2-6 in the conference is the same arduous one the Sooners had to navigate through the last time around, with the addition of Michigan as one of the nonconference opponents.
Several of the SEC teams on OU's schedule will not be as strong as they were a year ago, but the Sooners still have to go to Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina, teams that are extremely difficult to beat playing at home. And then there is always the rivalry game with Texas, which most media sources have beginning the season in the top-three nationally.
So to circle back to the original premise of this article -- has Oklahoma done enough to right the ship for the second go-around in the SEC?
The program clearly has taken action in addressing the key areas of need on the field, as well as proactive steps to strengthen the critical area of talent procurement and roster management.
When all is said and done, however, it will always come down to the game plan and preparation, as well as in-game adjustments and how well the players on the field execute in performing their individual and collective jobs.
The early signs are positive, but then they generally are at this time of the year. Time will certainly tell.
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