I don’t believe Brent Venables.
Not in the “I think he just lied to all of us” sort of way.
Only in the “This is what coaches say in press conferences,” sort of way.
On Tuesday, the day after it was announced yet another offensive coordinator, Ben Arbuckle, had to be jettisoned from the program, Venables was asked if quarterback John Mateer, who would never have come to Oklahoma had Arbuckle not come to Oklahoma, would continue to start at quarterback.
“Everything’s on the table,” Venables said.
Now, folks might hear that and be excited.
Everything’s on the table?
Oh my, what’s he going to do now?
But no, I’m pretty sure he just wanted to get through the question, giving an entirely non-specific answer, while sounding like he’s open to change … now, rather than all those other times Mateer would have played himself off the field at all those other schools, or, probably, every other school.
But whatever. Cool.
Pencil it under coach’s prerogative.
No sweat.
The truth, though, is everything might well be on the table, just not in the way Venables might have implied.
Because, consider this:
First-year tight ends coach Jason Witten, we’re pretty sure, will be the Sooner offensive coordinator and play-caller the rest of this season, be that another four or five games.
Now, let’s say he succeeds.
Let’s say OU somehow wins three of those four games, maybe beginning with a triumph Saturday night in Gainesville, where the 25th-ranked Gators await the Sooners.
That would make for a 7-5 record and about all the success anybody could have hoped for coming out of last Saturday’s 42-25 Owen Field embarrassment against South Carolina.
Does Witten keep the job?
Does Witten keep the job and come back with the same group of offensive assistants, lest they bolt for new pastures without being pushed?
Does Witten keep the job but return with newly granted autonomy and a checkbook large enough to hire his own staff no matter the price?
Does Witten not keep the job?
Does Witten coach his way out of Norman of his own accord, off to work with a head coach in less dire straits than Venables?
Because if Witten turns it around, all of those things will be on the table.
But what if Witten fails?
Or just fails to succeed given a bad hand dealt?
Does he keep the job?
Does he lose the job?
Does he keep the job with the understanding the rest of the offensive staff will be set aside, leaving him to build back from scratch?
Does the team continue to crater as it cratered against the Gamecocks, not win another game this season, or only one, and not only does every assistant lose their job, but Brent Venables, too, because don’t think it can’t happen.
The buyout’s enormous, but if Venables’ bosses believe they’re staring at booting him for about $41 million after next season rather than about $52 million after this one, might the extra dough required after this one be a small price to pay given eventual lost revenue if next season’s as dreary as this one?
It’s a good question.
But I digress.
Do the Sooners continue to crater and do the firings not only include Venables, but his bosses, too: chair of football and special advisor to the president and athletic director Randall Stephenson, athletics director Roger Denny and university president Joe Harroz, too, because guess who wanted to get Venables on a longer and larger contract before Denny ever arrived.
And no, the football team does not a university make. But if you think the university can thrive alongside an irrelevant football program bearing its name, think again.
So, yeah, everything’s on the table.
And everything means everything.
Venables and everybody else better hope it’s the first set of questions, not the set that leaves everybody selling their homes.
It could be the first set, and here are some things about that.
“His communication skills are elite,” Venables said of Witten.
If true, it matters tons.
If he can only coach to the personnel on the field rather than his personal preferences, with adaptability and prescient play-calling, he’ll be way ahead of Arbuckle, whose loyalty to Mateer seemed to border on mental abuse due to his own mental block.
All that and firing Arbuckle might actually take the pressure off Mateer, because that’s what happens after worst fears are realized and maybe getting his longtime coordinator fired was his worst fear.
Witten’s bound to have the confidence of his convictions, too, something you won’t convince me Arbuckle enjoyed, not when he was decades younger than others on the staff, not when that staff was hired by the head coach rather than him. In such circumstances, how free could he ever have felt?
Witten’s already made all the money, received the adulation and won the awards. So he ought to be able to tell Emmett Jones to put Ivan Carreon in the game.
I’m looking forward to it.
Whatever it is, we’re getting nearer the next thing that works.
Exciting.