What's Venables prepared to do, short term and long, about Sooner offense?
The larger question looming over Sooner football right now does not ask how Michael Hawkins might perform at Auburn, but if Brent Venables, as a head coach, simply remains a fantastic defensive coordinator.
Is he a one-trick pony or the man?
Saturday, Oklahoma will start Hawkins behind center and how he’ll perform is an open question.
He accomplished mostly nothing in third quarter against Tennessee, yet performed quite well, thank you — though the Volunteer defense had to be relaxing — the rest of the way, leading the Sooners to a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives of 68 and 76 yards, accounting for 144 of OU’s 222 total.
Maybe he’ll play well and maybe he won’t, but asking much from him is actually asking quite a bit, for he remains a true freshman.
It’s at least a great story and it’s hard to imagine him struggling any more than Jackson Arnold, who may not have been put in a position to succeed, but whether he was or not certainly wasn’t playing with confidence and Hawkins should at least have that after facing the Vols.
That, of course, is the immediate.
The longer term should concern Sooner loyalists most.
From where I sat, Venables’ first offensive coordinator, Jeff Lebby, was a failure.
Under him, there was always a discrepancy between the yards the Sooners gained and their ability to score points, keep drives going and generally appear to know what they were doing.
Situational play calling was horrendous and that was enough, I thought, for fans to cheer his departure for Mississippi State, where he’s lost three of four games (though the Bulldogs are at least scoring points, which is more than OU’s been doing).
In Seth Littrell …?
You tell me.
It can’t be his fault his quarterbacks have no offensive line to maneuver behind. He wasn’t even on staff as a full-time coach until Lebby departed, weeks after early signing day.
One wonders now if Venables’ actual thinking might have been, though thin on the offensive line, the program would handle it because the defense figured to be gangbusters and that was good enough.
One also wonders, given his inclination to muzzle assistant coaches, do everybody’s talking for them and take up so much of the oxygen in the room, has Venables made it impossible to bring a visionary offensive coordinator into the fold, a version of himself, just on the other side of the ball?
Does Venables yearn to coach a team that’s electric with and without the ball, or only for “complementary football,” a term I hate and would love to retire, led by a great defense?
Bob Stoops did not settle for complementary. Fantastic on both sides of the ball was his MO, leading to national championship game appearances in 2003, ’04, ’08 and, sort of, in ’00, when OU won it all, though Josh Heupel’s arm went sore in the campaign’s second half, ceding command to the defense.
I fear that’s not Venables.
Yet, if it is, there are some thing he can do.
He can start by telling Littrell to coordinate an explosive offense and to play-call with an eye toward aggression, rather than, say, running it up the middle into second-and-12 and second-and-13 over and over again.
Though it may not be ideal, it probably means more designed runs for the quarterback.
It won’t help Saturday, but it certainly means caring about the offensive line every bit as much as the secondary and linebacking corps on the recruiting trail and in the transfer portal.
“Obviously, not good enough,” Littrell said on the way out of the Tennessee loss. “At the end of the day, you’ve gotta look at yourself first and figure out different things you can do better in different situations.”
Perhaps that will mean finding a few things the offense can do rather than 10 things he might wish it could but clearly can’t.
“We’ve got to bet better,” Venables said. “Sometimes, maybe, change is good.”
Mark that down as a possible quote of the year.
Given what’s happened, change is necessary, change couldn’t possibly be worse, change is called for.
Still, it’s so hard for the Sooner coach, so seemingly against his constitution, he must qualify it with “maybe.”
I don’t know what to make of it other than Venables may be too set in his ways to conquer coaching an entire team.
Could his standards ever be identical for both defense and offense?
Saturday, OU must figure out how to do something, anything, with Michael Hawkins behind center and it should begin with aggressiveness.
Going forward, Brent Venables must make himself not just want to pitch shutouts, but gain 500 yards, too.
That Heisman Park between the stadium and Jenkins Avenue should not only be a tribute, but a living legacy.
He’s must figure it out.
Good one, Clay. My impression of littrell is that he's a staid, conservative individual, and a terrible choice for an OC. I question where Bedenbaugh stands in all this. I haven't seen word one from him. I see today that they are moving a young DB to a WR. Good move. Now consider doing the same with 2-3 lesser D linemen and see if they can block. Hawkins was a no-brainer. Arnold had to go, and I don't mean for one game. He's the guy with the black cloud always over his head. An albatross who can do nothing right. His anointment as the face of OU's future had to be BV's doing and one of the single greatest mess-ups in school history. The only thing for certain is that BV should be on the hot seat for orchestrating this massive group of miscues in hiring and recruiting.