Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables is looking for his fourth full-time offensive coordinator in six years and his sixth offensive play-caller in that same timeframe. Ever since OU got to the SEC, the offense under Venables has struggled mightily, and it has certainly derailed a 2026 season that had so much promise at the beginning of the year.

When Venables got the OU job, he hired Jeff Lebby to be his first offensive coordinator. After two solid years on offense in 2022 and 2023, Lebby took the head gig at Mississippi State, so Venables promoted Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley to co-offensive coordinators for the 2024 season, with Littrell calling the plays. That arrangement lasted half the season, as the Sooners fell apart on offense and Littrell was fired mid-season. Finley was promoted to interim OC and play-caller, and Kevin Johns was promoted to interim co-OC for the rest of that year.

Ahead of the 2025 season, Oklahoma hired Ben Arbuckle to fix the offense, but kept the rest of the offensive position coaches intact. After taking a step forward last season, the OU offense cratered this year. Last week, Venables fired Arbuckle and promoted tight ends coach Jason Witten to interim offensive coordinator and play-caller.

During his weekly Tuesday press conference, after the Sooners and Witten's brand of the offense played well in last week's 16-point win over the Florida Gators, Venables addressed the timing of the decision to move in a different direction at offensive coordinator. He was asked if he felt the defense was being hurt by the lack of support from the offense this season.

"As hard and difficult of a decision as that was, we again, I know nobody wants me to say this, but from 2024 to 2025, we got better in 24 categories, and it was incremental improvement," Venables said. "Okay, incremental. It was enough for us to combine with the rest of our team to go to the playoffs, but at the same time, in closed-door meetings, it was, 'It can’t look like this next year, and everything stays the same, and this ain’t going to be good enough, and it’s got to be more than good enough.'"

After making those incremental improvements that Venables deemed not good enough, the Sooners fell flat on basically all of their offensive goals for 2026. Their major goal to run the football better was not met. The offensive line was expected to take a step forward, and they instead took a step back, in a season where the has dealt with significant injuries throughout the season. The effort to get better weapons around quarterback John Mateer was incomplete as Arbuckle seemed reluctant to get the ball to anyone other than Isaiah Sategna and Rocky Beers. Arbuckle refused to take pressure off of John Mateer.

Mateer himself did not improve at the rate OU expected, especially in accuracy and decision-making. Additionally, there's been no week-to-week or overall identity for the 2026 Sooners on offense, and health has continued to be an issue on that side of the ball in the Venables era.

All of those problems and unmet expectations led to a big step back when Venables expected a big step forward. That, along with the constant pressure on the OU defense because they received no help from their offense, led to the decision to move away from Arbuckle. That strong defense broke down in the South Carolina loss, as Oklahoma's season slipped away at home. It became crystal clear that Arbuckle's offense was hurting the team this year.

Witten's version of the offense played more complementary football against Florida, and the defense returned to its dominant ways. What happens next is anybody's guess, but the next three games get a lot more interesting with Witten calling the shots. Venables is not on the hot seat, but he's responsible for the whole program, including the offense.

Whoever gets the new OC job will have decisions to make about his assistants and position coaches, as Oklahoma is again headed for an offensive rebuild for a 2027 season that will be critical to Venables' future.

"I do feel like, as I said, from a timing standpoint, never a good time to make those types of decisions, but it was the right time," Venables said. "I did have a peace about that, and it was all about what is best for the team."