Brent Venables never expected an easy ride at Oklahoma. The Sooners’ SEC transition was always going to be brutal. And in his three years, the results aren’t promising. Two losing seasons including the grim 6-7 record in their first SEC run. The HC’s officially on the hot seat and he knows it. 

“I’ve been fighting for my job every year like somebody’s holding me out of the water trying to drown me,” Venables confessed. “And that’s been my mindset, that’s been my attitude when I come to work every day. So nothing’s changing for me.” But while he fights to hold on to his job, Oklahoma is making a major shift. With Jim Nagy entering the picture, the Sooners could be changing their fortune. 

Hired as OU’s new GM, the longtime NFL scout and former Senior Bowl director is bringing a pro-style approach to roster building. In a new YouTube episode on SoonerScoop on March 6, Jim Nagy laid out the first order of business in Norman. “We need to have a more robust staff,” he stated. “We’re going to bring in good people. We want to bring in some people with NFL experience. It’s not just going to be me from the NFL. We’re going more of a pro model so it’s going to be important to bring some more people on that end.” The goal is to build an NFL-style front office to handle scouting, talent evaluation, and roster construction while allowing Brent Venables to focus on coaching. 

With revenue-sharing and NIL reshaping college football, roster management is becoming a year-round business as Jim Nagy pointed out. “The cool part of being outside of college football like I have been, I’ve had a lot of people on the inside share stories with me and on the pitfalls and what they don’t like about it,” he admitted. “So I’ve taken a lot of notes over the years.” The 66-year-old, who spent 18 years in NFL Scouting departments with the Packers, Patriots, Chiefs, and Seahawks, built an extensive network of football minds. And his work at the Senior Bowl helped elevate his status as a premier pre-draft showcase, producing over 100 drafted players annually. That network is now a huge asset in Oklahoma. 

Brent Venables sees Jim Nagy’s hire as a game-changer. “I know it’s been called a home run, but that’s how we felt inside as well for all the reasons that you would expect,” he said. “He’s got this incredible football mind and all of the depths of experience and just as his levels of expertise in building rosters, the connections, the relationships that he has with all people with football at all levels, both professionally and collegiately.” There are already rumors that the Sooners could hire Buffalo Bills scout Alonzo Dotson as part of their front office expansion. But while Nagy builds the infrastructure, the HC faces an unforgiving reality. 

Brent Venables enters a make-or-break season

Oklahoma’s 2024 season ended with a heartbreaking 21-20 defeat against Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl. A rub of salt on the wounds of an already disappointing regular season. Now, 2025 looms as a defining year. OU’s schedule is brutal with tough matchups against Michigan, Texas, Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, and more. And Brent Venables understands what’s at stake. 

Citing the time when former K-State HC Billy Snyder hired him on an interim basis in 1993 where your job is always basically on the line, Venables admitted that mindset always stuck with him 30 years later. “I’ve literally had that mindset my entire career,” he said. “Every game is that way. Everyday I show up, something’s on the line. My job is on the line. I’ve had that for 30 years.”

Now, with Jim Nagy reshaping the front office, the peices are in place for a turnaround. But at the end of the day, can it buy more time for Brent Venables in Norman?