Brent Venables among coaches with the most to prove per On3 Sports

Oklahoma Sooners fourth-year head coach Brent Venables has his back against the wall entering the 2025 season. After a 6-7 record in 2024 meant he'd lead the Sooners to their only two losing seasons since 1998, when John Blake was the head coach, there's no more margin for error for Venables in Norman.

OU's second year in the SEC comes with a schedule that is just as treacherous as last year's. Oklahoma will have to be far better than they were a season ago to even make it to, say, nine wins. That's the task Venables signed up for when he decided to accept the offer to be the head coach at OU.

Being a head coach in college football, especially in the SEC, is a pressure-packed occupation. And Venables is under as much pressure as anyone in the entire country this season. On3 Sports college football analyst Ari Wasserman compiled a list of the 10 college football coaches who have the most to prove this season. His article included Venables.

Brent Venables enters this season in uncomfortable territory. A year after the Sooners endured what was just awful injury luck, Venables made waves in upgrading Oklahoma’s roster by bringing in Washington State transfer quarterback John Mateer. Mateer and an improved offensive line should have the Sooners in a good position offensively. Venables, one of the best defensive minds in college football, is always going to put out a tough and efficient defense, too. Oklahoma’s offense was awful this past year, but the Sooners were in just about every game they played because they could get stops. You can count on that returning. But if Oklahoma drops seven games or even six or five? That’s too much losing in too many years for Venables to be in a good spot. He can prove this year — against one of the hardest schedules in college football — that he’s the right guy for the job. - Wasserman, On3 Sports

With a lot to prove, there's also a lot of opportunity for Venables and the Sooners in 2025. Not much is being expected of them nationally, with a brutal schedule and the memories of last year's disaster still very prevalent. But if he can captain Oklahoma to a bounce-back season and get the ship steered in the right direction again, the college football public will have to take notice of what has been accomplished.

That's easier said than done, with as much as OU has to improve. However, maybe all of the changes that were made this offseason can pay off, and the Sooners will get back to their rightful place at the top of college football.

This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: On3 analyst believes Brent Venables still has a lot to prove

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