The clock started ticking in Norman way before it was supposed to. On the back of fourth-year coach Brent Venables dishing out two losing seasons in three years—and now, a 6-7 mark in the Oklahoma Sooners’ rocky SEC debut—fans aren’t exactly in the mood for patience. The pressure is cranked up by watching Texas leap into the Playoff conversation, and now, in 2025, it’s the HC who, quite expectedly, finds himself under the microscope.

That might sound like the setup for a grim final chapter. But oddly, there’s a strange optimism floating around. In a conversation on the Crain & Company podcast earlier this week, Jake Crain asked, “Where are the Oklahoma fans at so far in the Brent Venables experience? And, how do you feel like he’s ingratiated himself into the program and into the fan base?” To this, Eddie Radosevich of Sooner Scoop first explained exactly what situation Venables finds himself in.

“With Texas getting to a college football semi-final and back-to-back seasons, it’s kind of raised the expectations even more than they usually are for Oklahoma football. And it hasn’t gone well. Strangely enough, you come out of this six and seven season a year ago where it seemed like everything hit the fan multiple times. You had to bench your five-star quarterback in Jackson Arnold. You had to make an offensive coordinator move during the middle of the year. I think that there’s a lot of people, and obviously so, going into this next season…that the expectations and the pressure on Brent Venables to see what his tenure is going to be. You’ve got to win football games.”

But the good thing is there’s time till the fan base actually gives up. “There is a certain level of optimism, a certain level of confidence coming out of the 2024 season that you just wouldn’t have expected.” Where is the optimism coming from?

It’s pinned squarely on the “‘record-setting’ NIL deal valued around $3 million” headlined by former Washington State QB1 John Mateer. The Sooners paired him with Cal transfer RB Jaydn Ott and brought in play-caller Ben Arbuckle to steer the ship. “A lot of people—you look at the schedule obviously it’s going to be tremendously tough—have kind of been rejuvenated a little bit going into 2025…with some of the moves that they made in the portal, obviously getting [OC] Ben Arbuckle and him coming along with John Mateer, it’s been a boost of confidence that I think Oklahoma fans needed going into 2025 with the magnitude that this season brings—which is tremendous,” Radosevich said.

Still, Venables’ hot seat won’t be able to cool down. The Paul Finebaum Show, never one to hold back, had the Sooners ranked third in terms of the toughest SEC schedules. And Finebaum didn’t mince words: “Oklahoma… is also in a very tight spot with Brent Venables after two subpar seasons.” The leash is short, and the challenge is steep. Brent Venables has watched UT break into back-to-back CFPs while his program has spiraled into quarterback controversies and mid-season coordinator changes.

Complicating matters is the financial web Oklahoma weaved. Just last year, Venables signed a lucrative contract extension worth $34.9 million in buyout money if fired after this season. That figure, along with his close relationship with longtime AD Joe Castiglione, makes this less of a business decision and more of a marriage with legal entanglements. Still, football is a cold business. And no relationship is immune to the SEC’s furnace of expectations.

Venables’ track record as a defensive guru hasn’t translated to wins in the SEC, and OU people aren’t measuring progress by cultural fit anymore. They’re measuring it in December wins and January appearances. If John Mateer can prove to be more than just a portal gamble, if Ott can be a bell-cow, and Arbuckle’s offense finally clicks, Venables might just buy himself more time.

Sooner or later, can Arbuckle and John Mateer fix what 2024 broke?

If Brent Venables is betting big in 2025, his chips are on Ben Arbuckle and John Mateer. And why not?

“I think he will,” said Sooner Scoop’s Eddie Radosevich when asked if Arbuckle can truly run it his way this fall. “And I think it’s probably a lot to do with looking in the mirror and what didn’t happen in 2024.” That reflection included an ugly firing of Seth Littrell mid-season, a failed two-headed OC setup with Joe Jon Finley, and Venables dipping his hands into offensive decisions—something Oklahoma fans aren’t used to.

Injuries, inconsistency, and an O-line held together with duct tape turned the 2024 offense into “one of the worst offenses in the modern era of Oklahoma football.” A far cry from the Lincoln Riley fireworks show fans once took for granted. But now, there’s hope. “It was kind of interesting through the spring watching those two kind of ingratiate themselves with the offensive side of the football. There’s not a whole lot of guys coming back on the offensive line. They have a lot of guys coming back that got experience having to play a year ago at the wide receiver position. But, you know, I think it helps from a terminology standpoint. Those guys are on the same page.”

“Mateer in a way was a coach on the field alongside Ben Arbuckle and installing the offense,” Radosevich added. “It just feels different than it did a year ago.” Sure, it’s a lot of pressure for a 29-year-old OC. But Arbuckle’s system, Mateer’s maturity, and a familiar offensive language could be the shot of adrenaline Venables needs to survive.