Oklahoma entered its Halloween night home game against South Carolina with a chance to steady a season that had been slipping. By the early fourth quarter, the deficit was 42-16, fans were booing the team off the field, and some were reportedly chanting for offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle to be fired. The final read 42-25.
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A day later, ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum, one of the loudest voices in college football, delivered a verdict on the man running the program.
“I’m going to tell you right now, Brent Venables is dead,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show on Sunday. “He’s not getting back. He’s out of ammunition. This has been an abject disaster for him. And unfortunately for Oklahoma fans, they’re stuck with him.”
Finebaum’s point about being stuck comes down to money. Head coach Venables agreed to a two-year extension on August 20, creating a six-year, $63 million deal that runs through the 2032 season. His buyout stood at $52.49 million as of October 31. The deal reportedly includes a duty-to-mitigate clause that could reduce what Oklahoma owes if he takes another job, but any buyout would still be expensive.
“I have rarely seen a guy limping more than Venables right now,” Finebaum said, pointing to how fast the season turned.
Oklahoma made the College Football Playoff last year and opened this season ranked No. 10. New athletic director Roger Denny, hired from Illinois in January, made his first major football decision was to keep Venables. Finebaum acknowledged that fortunes swing quickly in college football, but he treated Venables as the exception.
“Nobody’s dead in this sport. I mean, it’s a little bit like Halloween,” he said. His example was Shane Beamer, whom he said was ‘dead’ four weeks ago. South Carolina had fallen to 2-3 after a 35-34 overtime loss to Kentucky on October 3, then beat Florida, Tennessee and Oklahoma in consecutive games.
The game got away from Oklahoma quickly. Kip Lewis returned an interception 30 yards for a touchdown to tie it at 7-7 early in the second quarter, and South Carolina took over from there.
LaNorris Sellers threw for 301 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 96 yards and two scores, including scoring passes of 84 yards to DJ Black and 79 yards to Mazeo Bennett Jr. South Carolina’s 521 yards and 42 points marked the most yards and points Oklahoma has allowed since joining the SEC in 2024.
“We just didn’t coach them well, didn’t have them well prepared, didn’t play good,” Venables said after the game. He also said South Carolina out-executed Oklahoma, and he declined to discuss potential staff changes.
Quarterback John Mateer sounded just as shaken. “I won’t sleep peacefully tonight, and I don’t think anybody in this building will,” he said. Mateer threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to Ivan Carreon, but by then the game was well out of reach.
Oklahoma is 4-4 overall and 2-3 in the SEC, with losses to Michigan, Georgia, Kentucky and South Carolina. The Sooners beat No. 1 Texas 27-24 on October 10, then lost at home to Kentucky the following week.
Venables is 36-24 at Oklahoma and 0-4 in the postseason. His team needs two wins in its last four games, against Florida, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Missouri, to extend its streak of bowl appearances, which dates to 1999.
Finebaum’s call is an opinion, and nothing in the reporting says Oklahoma is ready to move on. What it does show is how much pressure surrounds Venables as the Sooners head to Florida on November 7.