The Oklahoma Sooners are banking on a bounce-back season from their head coach and the program in 2025. On the whole, 2024 was more of an aberration than anything. It’s hard to truly take anything away from the offensive side of the ball due to all of the injuries.
Venables led the Sooners on an offseason of sweeping changes to the offensive side of the ball to help resurrect an Oklahoma offense that finished No. 97 in the nation in scoring at 24 points per game. Despite the offensive inefficiencies, the Sooners were close in a few games, leading Ole Miss at halftime on the road and holding a touchdown lead against Missouri. If they were even a little bit more consistent offensively, there’s a possibility we’re talking about an 8-4 regular season instead of 6-6.
With all eyes on Brent Venables ahead of a pivotal 2025 season, former offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, now head coach at Mississippi State, took to the SEC media days stage on Wednesday morning and offered a vote of confidence in his former head coach. Why does he believe the Sooners can turn things around in 2025?
It comes back to Venables.
“Toughness. Consistency. Conviction,” Lebby said. “He is going to be very, very true to his process. He is the same man every single day, not letting results dictate who’s going to show up in the building every day.”
That consistency is what has helped Oklahoma build a borderline elite defense during his time as the Sooners’ head coach. Now he just needs the offense to return to the production it had in 2022 and 2023, where they averaged 30 and 41.7 points per game. If Ben Arbuckle is everything everyone hopes he is, the Sooners offense will be back to playing good ball and helping this team win.
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