What inspiring win over Alabama means for Brent Venables and Oklahoma

There's little question Oklahoma's resounding victory over Alabama this past weekend was the high point of a season filled with team adversity and anguish on the part of passionate Sooner football fans.

First of all, Oklahoma wins at home, even over some of the best teams in the country, is not an uncommon occurrence historically. The Sooners have lost at home just 15 times over the last 26 seasons and have won of the best home winning percentages in college football history.

That's why when a massive number of the 84,000 fans attending the game last Saturday at Gaylord Family--Oklahoma Memorial Stadium stormed the field in celebration of their beloved Sooners' convincing 24-3 upset win over No. 7-ranked Alabama it represented a moment of epic scale in the already illustrious history of Oklahoma football.

"It's just not a normal thing here," Sooner head coach Brent Venables said after the game. "The standards are really high. It was (Sooner) magical. I'm thinking about the players. Oh, man, this is what we've been talking about. Paying this incredible price for victory."

In an up and mostly down season that was painfully tracking toward what would have been only the seventh losing season at Oklahoma since 1947 and just the 14th in 130 years of OU football history. Moe troubling, though, is that it would have been the second losing campaign in Venables' three seasons as head coach.

The win over heavily favored Alabama was gigantic in and of itself, but it couldn't have come at a better time. Since beating Auburn on Sept. 28, the Sooners had lost four of it last five games, with the lone win coming over Maine, a team that competes a level below OU in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

The Sooners were staring dead in the face of what experts were projecting to be a 1-6 finish to the season. OU could still lose to LSU on the road on Saturday to close out the regular season, but the circumstances have now changed.

The stunning victory over Alabama was a win the Sooners desperately needed. It not only stopped the bleeding of a four-game losing streak against SEC opponents, but also represented an important sixth win, making a team that is accustomed to playing in December and January, bowl eligible for what will be a 26th consecutive year.

It also instills renewed confidence in what this team is truly capable of when it stays focused, out-physicals the other team and successfully executes the little details that are necessary to win games, which includes winning the turnover battle. The Sooners checked all the boxes against Alabama, and it resulted in a huge, season-saving victory.

Quarterback Jackson Arnold played his best game of the season behind a much-criticized offensive line that matched that same performance level and, amid all the injuries to key offensive weapons, the Sooners might have found an exciting new weapon in true freshman running back Xavier Robinson. Sooner coaches are hoping the team can build off the momentum and confidence level gained from the domination of Alabama and carry it into this week's game at LSU, into the postseason and, ultimately into next year.

More than seven million people reportedly watched what Oklahoma did to mighty Alabama via primetime network television, but the most important of those viewers, according to Venables, may have been the commitments and potential recruits to the Sooners' 2025 and 2026 recruiting classes.

"I would be naive if I acted like it (the win over Alabama) didn't have a positive effect (on recruiting)," Venables said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday. "I've been doing this a long time, so I know when to play off of that window -- 'You see what I've been telling you?' Not that...Just affirmation. 'Hey, we're getting better.' There's a lot to be excited about the future. And if Oklahoma doesn't beat Oklahoma, this is what we're capable of."

Venables has been under fire this season for the Sooners' disappointing and often lackluster performance of OU's once prolific offense. There are multiple issues that have affected that, but needless to say the Sooners' head coach has faced tremendous adversity, and it has seemingly gotten more so as the season progressed. The win over a very good Alabama team that until Saturday was considered a College Football Playoff team this season was a huge lift off of Venables' shoulders and affirmation of what he knows this team is truly capable of.

On top of all that Venables has had to deal with in the football program, he informed us during the Tuesday press conference that his wife, Julie, has a recurrence of her cancer that was first diagnosed in the summer of 2023. For the past several months, he said, she has been traveling back and forth between Norman and New York for treatment.

Joe Mussatto, who covers Oklahoma sports for The Oklahoman, wrote this week what every Sooner fan was probably thinking: We might be looking back on Saturday as a turning point in Venables' tenure at Oklahoma.

"You could feel the weight of the job lighten just a little," Mussatto wrote, "when after the game, Venables said what all of Sooner Nation was thinking: 'It's. About. Freaking. Time.'"