So, I did a thing.
You know, other than get married to The Great Gwenda Tuesday night in our backyard, my best and oldest friend Chris Bright officiating, even on his 60th birthday, the entire wedding party consisting of six people, giving us a witness to spare, the day also our seventh anniversary of giving it a go in the first place.
I did a thing other than that.
On Tuesday I asked ChatGPT for the most pointed pieces and posts since Oklahoma fell 41-13 at Georgia.
From Sooners SI you could read about how poorly John Mateer played and, mostly, how it’s deja vu all over again for Brent Venables and his Sooners.
You know: losing season, 10-win season, losing season, 10-win season and, now, who knows how big a losing season?
Then, over at USA Today, where John Brice writes Sooners Wire, the big question asked if Venables is now on “the hot seat.”
Brice, of course, must feel pretty good knowing the national trio of Yahoo’s Andy Staples, Ross Dellenger and Steven Godfrey is asking the same thing under the headline, “Is Brent Venables’ time at Oklahoma coming to an end.”
Meanwhile, the Associated Press’ Maura Carey, on hand in Athens, charted the decision to stick with Mateer despite three killer turnovers, leading with Venables’ quote about considering benching him and closing with a quote from Mateer, another from Venables and a little history.
Also, SEC Country’s Jackson Fryburger wrote a sort of pro-con thing about Mateer and the Sooners, under the headline, “Oklahoma Has a Quarterback Question It Can No Longer Ignore.”
All of this, really just the headlines, is a fine barometer of what a college football nation thinks of OU.
It thinks it’s seen it before. It thinks it might have consequences for the head coach, despite his having recently and wrongly received a new contract. It thinks the Sooners “Can No Longer Ignore” their “Quarterback Question.”
Then again, if you were to read each entry, presuming you watch the games, you might not feel particularly more informed than when you started.
Or, perhaps that’s too harsh.
Perhaps you’d be informed a bit. But what they would not do for you, football metaphor alert, is move the ball.
All but one.
Ryan Aber, ex of The Oklahoman, now contributing to Sooners SI, came out Monday with a deep dive on the running game.
It informed, it offered historical context and present-day perspective, it told you a story you should understand in all of its awfulness.
So, score one for Ryan, who took a moment to congratulate me on my marriage, too … of course that’s not why I mention it. I’m not in the free compliments business.
Now, I’ll try moving the ball.
Let me know how it goes.
You may recall I spent my postgame column explaining, despite everything, OU put hope on the table coming out of Athens that was not present coming out of a home-field victory over New Mexico.
By choosing to throw the ball first rather than run it, turnovers aside, the Sooners finally mounted drives, finally put scoring more points on the table, which puts future wins on the table, too, providing Mateer can cure his turnover woes.
There’s still that.
Now, the flip side.
What remains?
Little good.
In fact, rather than try to beat Texas two Saturdays from now, and Kentucky afterward, Mississippi State after that and South Carolina after that, OU should merely seek competence instead.
Do that, let the chips fall.
Competence.
The lack of it begins at the very top, in university president Joe Harroz and rookie athletic director Roger Denny, who added additional seasons to the contract Venables signed two off-seasons ago, marking the first time he was extended when he shouldn’t have been. That contract played a large role in his remaining employed following the ’24 season, the buyout so big, while his new one appears bound to keep him beyond this season.
Though the new buyout remains unknown, it was previously 100 percent of his deal. So, given his new one pays an annual $10.5 million through 2031, it would seem to be a WHOLE lot of money.
Oh, yeah, they let men’s hoops coach Porter Moser keep his job, too, despite plainly getting the worst results in program history going back to Bob Stevens, who went 46-79 from ’63 to ’67.
Now, let’s talk football.
While Venables has turned the Sooner defense into a world beater, his offense has gone the other way in a sprint.
Now unbeaten as Mississippi State’s head coach, Jeff Lebby ran the Sooner offense in ’22 and ’23 and though I found him to be a deficient play-caller, OU nonetheless picked up 474 and 507 yards of total offense per game those seasons, scoring 32.8 and 41.7 points per outing.
It was 331 yards and 24 points in ’24, ranking 113th and 97th among Division I programs. It was 354.3 and 26.2 in ’25, ranking 90th and 78th. It is 329.7 and 25 right now, ranking 115th and 99th, and would not be nearly that high without a 51-0 opening-day rout at UTEP that came with 401 yards of offense.
It should probably be mentioned Venables himself is his third defensive coordinator and Ben Arbuckle is his fourth offensive coordinator.
Is that competence?
Feels like a breakdown.
Also, the next time a Sooner offensive coordinator is granted the authority to hire his own staff will be the first time since Venables came aboard.
Now let’s get into the game.
Mateer should have been replaced, at least for a series or two, just to save him from himself, after he dropped the ball that led to the 80-plus yard scoop and score last Saturday. What followed, instead, were two more giveaways and an irretrievable game by the half.
Maybe OU’s now better off having played Mateer after the half, but incompetence still reigns.
It reigns because not going to a backup at any point during the first half must mean the Sooners have no confidence — none, zilch, nada — in backups Whitt Newbauer and Bowe Bentley.
It literally can’t not mean that … well, unless they do have confidence in one or both and still wouldn’t play them, which would be even more bananas.
But if they can’t play, why are they even on the roster and what does it tell us about the coaching staff, Venables first and Arbuckle second? What does it tell us about general manager Jim Nagy who failed to put together a roster with a backup quarterback capable of entering a game when the starter has short-circuited for all to see.
Which brings memories.
OU did not make a play for Dillon Gabriel two seasons ago, after which he left for Oregon and finished third in the ’24 Heisman voting. Nope, the Sooners opted for Jackson Arnold, who’s now on his third team, quarterbacking UNLV and not particularly well at that.
Arnold’s backup in Norman was Michael Hawkins, now excelling at West Virginia after backing up Mateer last season. Probably, letting Hawkins go was the right thing for Hawkins and the Sooners, but that’s no defense for where OU finds itself now, without capable backups and with a No. 1 who’s failed to perform despite being a two-year starter on the team and a three-year starter and four-year prospect under Arbuckle’s tutelage.
What gives?
Let’s go granular.
Twice against the Bulldogs, OU could not get out of the huddle fast enough and wound up calling time out to avoid delay penalties.
That can be overcome, sure, but if the first rule is do no harm … not competent.
But Mateer stayed in the game and eventually the Sooners scored, Rocky Beers catching a 17-yard pass not quite four minutes into the third quarter.
Venables chose to go for two.
WHAT?
Let’s see, if you make it a 20-point game instead of a 21-point game … wait, do you think Venables was harboring a two-touchdown, two-field goal comeback plan?
Four scores instead of three?
Math majors nor anybody else can make any sense of it.
Plainly not competent.
How about running it up the middle following a half-the-distance offsides call hoping to get the two points when you can’t run the ball, haven’t run the ball in the game and haven’t been able to run the ball all season?
Or, give Aber the assist on this one, when the last time you ran the ball this poorly Bud Wilkinson was still 10 years from Norman and a very young Walter Cronkite was calling the Sooners on the radio?
The only sense to be made of Arbuckle making that call is his seeking to please Venables in a case of Stockholm Syndrome run amok. So maybe Venables made it.
Fifty-fifty, I’d say.
Well, unless they didn’t want to hurt 14-year offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh’s feelings, whose line has been decidedly dreadful a third straight season.
Yet he remains.
So much incompetence.
Tangent, guess how many yards and points Nebraska’s been rolling up four victories into the season, the last a 31-13 triumph over Michigan State? It’s 482.7 and 42.5, but who’s counting.
Remember the old Talking Heads album, Stop Making Sense? If Sooner football were to put out an album, it would be called Make It Make Sense.
So, sure, wins are nice.
But OU can’t worry about that.
It must start by ending the dysfunction everybody can see but a $10.5 million head coach hasn’t begun to solve.
It should begin with doing no harm.
It should begin with competence.
Do that and the wins might come, anyway.
Author’s Note: Previously in this column, OU president Joseph Harroz was referred to as Nick Harroz. He is now referred to as Joe Harroz, because that’s what he’s typically called and Oklahoma Columnist is not formal. It does, though, regret the error.
After the muffed 2 point attempt, I thought that they should have kicked the extra point. It is heartbreaking to see the program fall apart like this!