Last season, Oklahoma finished 6-7 with a defense that ranked eighth in the country in adjusted EPA/play and 13th in success rate. Led by linebacker Danny Stutsman and a deep group of defensive linemen, Brent Venables had orchestrated one of the best defenses in the country, and still, Oklahoma finished 6-7 because the other side of the ball was an unmitigated disaster.
2024 was supposed to be the season when Dillon Gabriel handed the torch to former five-star quarterback Jackson Arnold in Norman, but instead, Arnold was benched for freshman Michael Hawkins Jr. in a Week 4 loss to Tennessee. Hawkins provided a spark against Auburn, but after a blowout in the Red River Rivalry, Venables was forced to go back to Arnold.
Against Alabama, Arnold, who has since transferred to Auburn, went just 9-11 passing for 68 yards and ran the ball 25 times for 131 yards in the Sooners’ 24-3 win. The loss in Norman cost the Tide a spot in the College Football Playoff, and the tumultuous season forced Venables to change everything on the offensive side of the ball. So, if Venables still has DeBoer’s number and has a functional offense, it could be a big problem for Alabama in Week 12 at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
What happens if Brent Venables gets a real offense this season?
Venables fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell midseason, weeks before playing Alabama. There were many issues on the Oklahoma offense from the quarterback play to the scourge of wide receiver injuries, but the biggest may have been elevating Littrell to OC after Jeff Lebby left for Mississippi State.
Littrell attempted to run the veer-and-shoot system, an offense that originated with Art Briles at Baylor, which Lebby brought to Oklahoma. But there is a big difference between running a system and owning it. Littrell knew the principles, but didn’t know which dials to turn or buttons to push when the offense got out of whack. Now, new OC Ben Arbuckle arrives, not just with an air-raid inspired system that he’s run since he began his coaching career at Houston Baptist, but with a quarterback to run it too.
Arbuckle and John Mateer will completely change the identity of an Oklahoma offense that finished 129th in adjusted EPA/play, 117th in success rate, and posted an explosive play rate in the seventh percentile. But it’s even more than that. Venables went out and added five wide receivers and two tight ends in the transfer portal, then grabbed star running back Jaydn Ott from Cal in the spring window as the cherry on top.
Right now, we don’t know what this Sooners offense is going to look like, just that it can’t be worse. By Week 12, it will be much clearer what type of team the Sooners are, and if the defense continues to play at a high level under one of the best defensive minds in the sport and the offense improves, the Sooners won’t be an easy out in SEC play.