Venables' price so high, Sooner Nation must hope it was all Littrell, even though it clearly wasn't
Seth Littrell had to go.
He had to go because somebody had to go and he had to go, probably, because he’s not equipped to make the most of what this already horrendously limited Sooner offense might still accomplish.
He’s a kind of scapegoat.
Also, his walking papers, though more deserving culprits might exist — who’s the line coach, anyway? — are deserved.
There is, however, still one coach who can’t be fired, not by season’s end, certainly not mid-season, who nonetheless bears far more responsibility for the pathetic showings Oklahoma continues offering in this thus-far Groundhog Day of a season.
That would be the man who hired Littrell in the first place, first as an analyst after he was dismissed as North Texas head coach, and then as Jeff Lebby’s successor after Lebby left to become the head guy at Mississippi State.
The man who came on the job way back in December of 2021, perhaps not in time, given defections, to put a terrific team on the field in 2022, yet absolutely in time to not be this stinking bad three seasons later, a season in which OU has scored 16 or fewer points in four of seven games and single digits twice, which happens to be the same number of times it’s managed even 300 yards from scrimmage.
That’s Brent Venables, of course, who bleeds defense, but who’s been absolutely delinquent on the offensive side of the ball.
Venables, who, I can’t seem to stop reminding, somehow said the most disappointing thing from the Sooners’ 34-3 loss to Texas two Saturdays ago was the defense that kept it in the game as long as it could, not the offense that managed only a field goal.
Venables, who, no matter how bad it gets this season, and perhaps next, OU may be stuck with much longer than anybody may be willing to accept.
To be honest, this column was going to be something along the lines of Venables having spent his one get-out-of-jail-free card, because when it’s so bad you must ditch a coordinator mid-season, the next big shoe to drop, should the need arise, will be you.
That kind of logic ought to hold with a coach of Venables’ stature.
Still young in the job, on the verge of his second rotten season in the space of three tries and, far worse than the original, a campaign that’s been so bad offensively — OU ranks 128th in total offense (288.1 ypg) and 107th in scoring offense (22.1 ppg) among 133 FBS programs — it points to real turmoil and dysfunction, if not the simple objective judgment the job’s far too big for him.
Given all that, barring a miraculous finish to this season, next season will necessarily become make or break
Right?
It should, at least.
Yet, because the extension OU gave Venables following last season’s resurgent 10-win rebound appears every bit as bad for the university as the offense he keeps putting on the field, it may not.
That’s because, according to USA Today’s college football head coach salary database, the cost of buying out Venables’ contract is dang near $45 million — $44,808,333 to be precise — and while that’s bound to lessen by December of next year, it doesn’t figure to lessen by $30 million.
Or try on this possibility.
Pretend Oklahoma were to, egads, lose to Maine a week from Saturday at home.
The Black Bears are an FCS program, carrying 63 rather than 85 scholarships, so you might think it impossible, but all they did a few days ago was rout Villanova, the then-No. 5 team in all of FCS, 35-7, after leading 28-0 at the half.
Could Venables survive a loss like that?
You’d think not, but the university would have to let him given his exit price tag and, as mentioned, decent chance, nor could it afford to buy him out after next season either.
It would be so easy if Venables could just figure it out, but can he?
Following the South Carolina debacle, among the things he said was “The problems are easy to identify, the fixing them is not always easy.”
That’s a fair statement, but how easy is it to identify how the Sooners became stuck with so bad an offense in the first place?
Injury at the wide receiver position is mostly dumb luck, but is it any wonder a pair of tight ends imported from Southeastern Louisiana and North Texas are getting beat over and over again?
Or, how many misjudgments had to be made to put the Sooners in position to rely upon first-year portal prospects to constitute the offensive line when the program’s allegedly landed terrific recruiting classes since Venables’ hire … to say nothing of allowing it to happen the very same season each of your quarterback options was bound to be a first-year starter?
You look at the Sooner offense and you think, sure, why can’t they figure out something, anything to not suck so badly.
But we should also look at it and think, holy cow, how many poor decisions had to be made over the past three years to get here and a majority of them likely didn’t include Seth Littrell.
Maybe Joe Jon Finley can call better plays. That would be nice.
Also, it’s a horrendous mess and it took the guy at the top coming up short to create it.
I no longer know where to begin with this terrible, terrible screw up of one of the premier programs in NCAA history. But vendables has to go. Bargain a deal to pay him off and get him out of Norman. Again!
Are you somehow forgetting that Lebby just left? Coach V is for sure making plenty of mistakes, but I'm sure he'll learn and grow from them. He is a proven winner who has been dealt a bunch of blows. He doesn't have to be the brains of anything, just be a good leader and delegator.