The right guy to lead Sooner offense, provided they can stay out of his way
As an exercise, let’s come up with all the the reasons Ben Arbuckle, announced Monday as Brent Venables next offensive coordinator, will fail.
1) It’s out of his hands because the problem’s at the top. Thus far Venables has proven to be a poor program maestro and if Arbuckle must overcome the man who hired him and opposing defenses, too, it’s unlikely to work.
2) He’s just not the guy. Instead, he’s just another bad hire by a head coach who’s struggled with coordinator calls, having fouled it off with Jeff Lebby, cracked a double or better with Zac Alley, yet struck out with both Ted Roof and Seth Littrell.
3) He’s not ready. As recently as 2017, Arbuckle was backing up West Texas A&M starting quarterback Justin Houghtaling; as recently as 2020, he was coordinating Class 4A high school football in Seminole, Texas; and though he spent two years at Western Kentucky and two at Washington State, he remains just 29 years old and this is the SEC we’re talking about.
4) Maybe he can coach but does he have the recruiting contacts to thrive in SEC country, or even the wherewithal to judge the talent required to compete in his new conference, because that’s part of his job, too?
High risk, high reward, they’ve been saying on the radio and podcasts since it became clear Arbuckle would be the guy.
That’s a misnomer, of course.
When your offense is already horrendous, the risk is quite low, for Arbuckle would have to try very hard to make it any worse.
Better simply to ask if he can do the job, to which the takeaway should be thus:
If he can spot the talent required to run what he runs and recruit to it, and if Venables can put him in a position to be successful, something he failed to do with Littrell, there’s no reason to believe Arbuckle can’t be terrific.
Objectively, on the list above, the first option remains the biggest threat, that Venables might become the culprit standing in his way
Take a look at the release Oklahoma sent out Monday and the numbers are there.
Under Arbuckle’s direction, Washington State’s offense ranks sixth in passing touchdowns (30) this season, eighth in yards per pass attempt (9.1), ninth in collective quarterback rating (165.2) and 14th in yards per snap (6.7).
Also, while the Cougars threw for 268.8 yards per game, they also ran the ball for 171.6, thus averaging 440.4 yards of total offense, which is a whole lot more than OU’s 322.5.
Did we mention Washington State did all that with a first-year starting quarterback, John Mateer, Miami’s NIL riches having lured Cam Ward out of Pullman last offseason.
Since, not only has Ward lifted the Hurricanes back to prominence, among Heisman hopefuls no quarterback has better odds than him.
Arbuckle’s, though short, is quite a resumé.
Dig a little deeper and he looks even better.
He’s in a position to come to Norman only because his rise has been meteoric and earned, and when that happens a young coach can find himself running an offense like OU’s in his 20s.
Arbuckle’s biggest jump wasn’t from Class 4A high school in Texas to Western Kentucky, but from being an offensive quality control analyst when he arrived at Western Kentucky to becoming offensive coordinator the very next season.
Imagine how impressive he must have been to earn that promotion.
Arbuckle’s 2022 Hilltopper offense averaged 497.3 yards from scrimmage, ranking 15th in the nation.
That earned him the job at Washington State, where he took over an offense that had averaged 360.7 yards from scrimmage and turned it into one averaging 421.7 before adding to that number this season.
Then there’s his work with quarterbacks.
Ward was fantastic at Incarnate Word before transferring to Pullman, and still Arbuckle must get some of his developmental credit.
Then there’s Mateer, a redshirt sophomore, whose numbers are quite good and whose quarterback rating, 164.1, is really good, ranking ninth in the nation.
Better than that is Mateer’s rating over his last six games: 187.4, representing a 16-to-1 TD-to-INT ratio and a 74.2 completion percentage.
Incidentally, Mateer’s second-half rating is easily higher than Indiana’s Kurtis Rourke’s nation’s-best full-season rating of 181.4.
Also, just maybe, Mateer will follow Arbuckle to Norman. But whether he does or no, Arbuckle still represents a trip back to the best of the Sooners’ glorious offensive past.
His system demands big passing yards, while counting on a strong running game, too.
Only this season, Kyle Williams has caught 60 passes for the Cougars, Kris Hutson’s caught 54 and Josh Meredith’s caught 34.
The last time OU found itself with two receivers catching at least 50 passes, Hollywood Brown caught 75, CeeDee Lamb caught 65 and Kyler Murray was throwing them ball in 2019.
Three All-Americans and a Heisman Trophy winner.
Also, this season, Mateer’s run for 826 yards and Wayshawn Parker for 735, accounting for 19 Cougar touchdowns and 5 yards per carry between them.
Think of that here.
A Sooner offense, finally, that knows what it wants to do, that claims an identity.
Given real autonomy, the type that might leave position assistants being overruled and the head coach mostly staying out of the way — a big ask, perhaps, but Venables must grant it — there’s every reason to believe Arbuckle will thrive.
Things in the windshield always look good, so we'll wait for the accolades. But Arbuckle seems to possess the magic necessary to rejuvenate the moribund OU offense...providing he can help in getting more/better SEC caliber O-Line players. Not many of us have heard about Mateer, but I would think that bringing him along would have been a requisite for Arbuckle to land the job. Now it's on to the portal where OU needs everything from QB, WR, RB, O-Line, D-Line and linebackers because at the rate that venables commitments are opting out, the cupboard may soon be bare. Here's hoping.