Kip Lewis brings an interception back for a touchdown against South Carolina. (OU Athletics Photo)

Nothing is ever settled.
Nothing is permanent.
Nothing is gained without something given back.

This is Oklahoma football under head coach Brent Venables.

It’s been going on for more than 4 1/2 seasons, and the new contract given him, one not signed until Oct. 13, means firing him would cost north of $50 million, about $24 million more than it would have cost to fire him before.

“I’ve had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with coach Venables,” athletic director Roger Denny said when the new contract became known. “It didn’t take long to see how well suited he is to lead Oklahoma football.

“Coach Venables is elite at building culture, not just in the locker room, but throughout the entire program.”

He just can’t win.

Not consistently.
Not season to season.
Not this season.

And next season will depend on an entirely, or dang near entirely, new offensive coaching staff his next offensive coordinator hires, presuming Venables doesn’t get in the way of it happening or get in the way of it after it happens.

All of that and the things he’s really good at, the things Denny sees in him, though necessary to build a winning program, do not build one alone. And here we are, watching those good things come to nothing on the field, which matters most.

My goodness, think of all the other things head coaching requires, the things Venables must be so bad at, or the things he doesn’t know he doesn’t know.

And Saturday, a day most of us figured would come down to the latest big question following last week’s victory at Mississippi State — how can the Sooners finally turn all the yards they’re bound to gain into points — my goodness how this team makes us so gullible — it came crashing down instead.

The Gamecocks, who claim a real quarterback in LaNorris Sellers, a running game beyond their quarterback and running back Matt Fuller, who missed most of the game, and receivers who thrive because Sellers isn’t afraid to throw the ball to them, walloped the Sooners 42-25.

Perhaps everybody associated with the program, even the players, is fat and happy materially, playing in the richest conference in America. But this is what OU’s putting on the field.

It began with penalties, six for 54 yards in the first half, just about all in the shoot-yourself-in-the-foot category.

A defensive holding call against Michael Boganowski extended a Gamecock drive.

A Manny Choice false start that turned third-and-4 into third-and-9 and a punt.

An unnecessary roughness call against Danny Saili turned a South Carolina third-and-7 at its own 28 into a first down, and four mostly big plays later a touchdown that put the Gamecocks on top 14-7.

How’d OU score the seven?

A pick six, of course, from Kip Lewis — the first of three turnovers the Sooners got without giving up one themselves (not that it mattered) — only momentarily stemming what would become the newest and most embarrassing loss of the season.

Near the end, SEC Network color man Gene Chizik, the old Iowa State and Auburn coach, couldn’t say enough about OU’s intestinal fortitude, the Sooners still trying to score and stop the Gamecocks.

But given the Sooners were a field-goal favorite, playing on their home field, trailed 28-10 at the half and were given two chances to gain two yards on their first possession of the second half only to fail miserably, the old coach’s compliments sounded like a litany of insults instead, because once upon a time Sooner football was more than this, a million miles from now.

The final score was a farce.

When the contest ended, the Sooners had added 15 second-half points, which might well have been 19 had they hit on a pair of two-point conversions, or even 26 had seven more been added when Lloyd Avant tried punching it in from the 1 inside a minute remaining, but couldn’t get there, giving back the ball to the Gamecocks to take a single knee and congratulate themselves on their victory.

Total offense was a farce, too.

Of the Sooners’ 359 yards, 288 came in the second half, 219 from the arm of John Mateer. Yet the contest was mostly over by the half, when the Sooners had been outgained 307 yards to 71, as Mateer appeared allergic to throwing the ball beyond the line of scrimmage.

It was so hard to watch, old Sooner receiving great Dede Westbrook took to Facebook to voice his displeasure:

“TAKE ALL THE @$%#@$% SCREEN PLAYS OUT OF THE OFFENSE AND THROW THE BALL DOWN THE @$%#@$% FIELD FOR THE LOVE OF GODDDD.”

For the record, I threw the symbols in there. Dede said what you think he said, and good for him because somebody had to.

It’s true, the vaunted Sooner defense allowed 521 yards and more than 40 points, but can you blame them? The Gamecocks are playing well and have something the Sooners haven’t known kind of since 2024, but really since 2019, when Jalen Hurts took the snaps, or perhaps the year before, when it was Kyler Murray.

That would be a game-changing quarterback. That, and as poorly as this offense performs, the Sooner defense was going to be run all over eventually.

It’s just who they are and by “they” I mean the program OU’s become since Venables took charge.

No identity.
No consistency.
No progress that builds upon itself from the start to the end.

Yeah, it’s just a different way to say again where this began, but it works, so there.

OU’s a bad football team.
And we’re watching it.

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Oklahoma Columnist, by Clay Horning

Sooner football, where nothing is gained