Fans must be wondering why the head coaches are treading with extreme caution in 2025. Well, the 2024 season has been a trailer on how things can turn topsy-turvy for even the most powerful teams. While the 2025 season is yet to pull up the curtains, CFB analyst Paul Finebaum is ready with his 2025 sketch. He said, “I’m incredibly bullish on Alabama.” 

On the other hand, to him, the No.1 team in the country is the Texas Longhorns. He said, “Well, that’s pretty boring, but I’m sticking with Texas. They just have it all across the board.” While Kalen DeBoer and Steve Sarkisian got enough motivational boost to accelerate their 2025 run, two coaches must already be losing their good night’s sleep. One is Brent Venables and the other is Hugh Freeze. Turns out that one of their seats is hotter than the other. 

On July 22, CBS Sports came out with their ‘SEC coach rankings 2025′. In that list, Auburn’s Freeze was placed at the 12th spot, ranked as No. 47, while Oklahoma’s Venables held the 13th spot with a No.52 ranking. If that was not enough blow for the head coaches, here comes some more. On the August 4 episode of The Next Round podcast, Lance Taylor invited Andy Staples as the guest. The host asked, “So, there is a chance that next year we could have major turnover in this conference. And I’m talking about as many as six or seven job opening up. More pressure though coming into this year. Is it Brent Venables or Hugh Freeze?” Staples replied, “That’s a good question. I think they’re both under tremendous pressure.”

According to Staples, Freeze’s buyout is “more manageable.” As per the reports, the Auburn head coach is scheduled to earn $7 million. That would leave his buyout at nearly $17 million after the 2025 season. At the same time, their schedule is “more manageable.” Cut to Venables’ Oklahoma, Staples focuses on their schedule. “I think Oklahoma, the last seven games of the Oklahoma schedule are the hardest seven games I’ve ever seen a team have to play. Now, that’s before the season, and maybe some of those teams will play differently. But I think it’s a pretty safe bet that those seven teams, like five or six of them, are going to be really good,” Staples stirred the pot. Venables’ boys will be facing Michigan, Auburn, Texas, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, and LSU.

Turns out they are the only team in the entire Southeastern Conference that’s going to face nine teams that currently have odds to win the national championship. Along with it, Venables is yet to figure out a lot of things. Their offense had a lacklustre season, averaging 22.2 points per game, ranking 27th in the nation and 19th when it came to yards per game, averaging 323.9. Secondly, Venables’ top five projected receivers missed all or most of the 2024 season due to injury. On the other hand, Auburn looks fit and fine when it counts on Cam Coleman and has one of the best offensive lines they have had in 10 years.

Staples thus noted, “You get competent quarterback player, and like Jackson Arnold, does not have to win the Heisman Trophy. He just has to not throw a crippling pick-six in the fourth quarter in several games. And I don’t think that’s a huge ask. So I think Venables is under more pressure. It’s a long way of saying I think Venables is under more pressure because I think Freeze has a better situation.” But turns out that this is one part of the story.

Analysts see a silver lining in Brent Venables’ Oklahoma 

The other part has all the spotlights on Venables’ Oklahoma for good reasons. As the head coach steps into his fourth year, it’s obvious that his clock’s already ticking. But we can count on one of their biggest strengths, their defensive line. As Josh Pate shared on his podcast, “You look at Oklahoma defensively. They went from 122nd to 79th to 19th. So that’s taken over for Lincoln Riley. There was no defensive identity to speak of there when Venables walked in. And so he immediately got to work on the side of the ball he specializes in.”

He continued, “It’s just doesn’t really mean anything if you don’t have the quarterback play and you don’t have the OC worked out on the other side. But I do think he’s at the best place he can possibly be.” Coming back to Venables, the head coach has gained enough fame as one of the best defensive coordinators in college football with Oklahoma and Clemson over the past 20 seasons. Greg McElroy placed Venables’ team as the No. 7 defense in the nation. And he’s got ample reasons for that…

The defensive line has got weapons to count on, like Jayden Jackson, Damonic Williams, Gracen Halton, and David Stone. They are mentored by the legend, Todd Bates. Not just Josh Pate, USA TODAY Sports’ Blake Toppmeyer’s analysis also steers in the opposite direction of what Andy Staples projected.

The analyst shared, “Oklahoma’s roster looks substantially better on the heels of a losing season that sparked Brent Venables to bring in quarterback John Mateer from Washington State. Mateer’s offensive coordinator, Ben Arbuckle, followed the quarterback to Norman to run Oklahoma’s offense. Win-win. Another win: Landing standout running back Jaydn Ott, a California transfer. Oklahoma returned a lot of production, and it surely can’t be as injury-plagued as last season.” Time for Venables to show his hand, maximize the firepower, or get burned by the blind spots.