All is Not Well at Oklahoma as HC Brent Venables Takes Dig at His Own Staff

The days before the Red River Rivalry are usually filled with talk of history, old grudges, and the challenge of playing in one of college football’s toughest settings. Oklahoma has had a different feel this week. Frustration has been building inside the program, and head coach Brent Venables has sounded increasingly fed up with the situation.

“It’s been incredibly inconsistent, very disappointing,” Brent Venables said about his O-line in his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “As you build your football team, that’s a critical place that requires the most development of any position that you have on your roster.”

“And we haven’t allowed for lots of different reasons. There’s the portal, the number one reason. You had two free agent windows, and so guys could come and go, so the instability because of the climate is a big part of it.”

Sooners’ OL coach Bill Bedenbaugh built his reputation by developing offensive linemen who went on to succeed in the NFL. Creed Humphrey and Tyler Guyton are two of the best examples.

When a head coach publicly criticizes his own program, dysfunction runs deeper than the scoreboard shows. Stay informed on Oklahoma's internal struggles with our college football newsletter.

That résumé has helped him weather Oklahoma’s offensive struggles in recent seasons. But the line has been poor this year. The Sooners have struggled to move defenders off the ball, and their pass protection has broken down at important moments.

The linemen have also looked out of sync, with little consistency in how they handle their assignments. Against Georgia, John Mateer had little time to settle in the pocket. He was sacked three times and lost control of the ball twice under pressure.

Oklahoma also managed to convert just two of its 14 third-down attempts. The offense never found a rhythm in a 41-13 defeat. Venables knows an offensive line takes time to build. Players need to get stronger, learn their assignments, and work together before they can handle the country’s best defensive fronts.

He could have blamed the players for their mistakes, but he took a different approach. The head coach questioned the team’s culture and whether his own staff had done a good enough job evaluating the players it brought in.

“We’ve done a very uneven job when it comes to choosing guys that we’ve brought in here,” Brent Venables said. “Way too many guys are coming and going at that position group, and we need continuity and consistency to develop that group.”

Oklahoma has lost several offensive linemen to the transfer portal over the past two offseasons, including Josh Bates, Geirean Hatchett, and Eugene Brooks. The staff tried to fill those gaps before the 2025 season.

They brought in experienced transfers Luke Baklenko, Jake Maikkula, and Derek Simmons. The plan has not worked as hoped. Maikkula is the only one of the three to earn a regular role, leaving Oklahoma short on reliable options.

Venables rarely speaks this openly about problems inside his staff. He has usually stood by his assistants when facing media questions, rather than publicly questioning their work.

The Oklahoma head coach faced heavy criticism during his first season in 2022, when the Sooners finished 6-7 and struggled badly on defense. The Sooners gave up 49 points to Texas, 55 to TCU, and 51 to Texas Tech. Fans and media members repeatedly called for defensive coordinator Ted Roof to be fired.

Venables did not throw Roof under the bus. He made it clear that the buck stops with him. Jeff Lebby also faced considerable criticism during his tenure as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator in 2022 and 2023. After Oklahoma lost to Kansas in 2023, Lebby faced questions about his play-calling.

Venables did not publicly blame him, instead pointing to the players’ mistakes and lack of discipline. He now needs the 2027 recruiting class to help rebuild the offensive line.

He said the class “can be incredibly important” as Oklahoma tries to build a more dependable group up front. Keeping the young linemen already on the roster will matter just as much.

The Sooners cannot keep losing developing players to the portal and expect to rebuild the line every offseason. But tomorrow’s recruits cannot block today’s defensive ends.

“It’s been very unstable and certainly not the kind of development that you want, from top to bottom,” Venables concluded.

Oklahoma could hardly have picked a worse week to deal with these problems. The Sooners are heading to the Red River rivalry to face Texas, whose defensive line has the talent to expose their struggles up front.

Edge rusher Collin Simmons is a particular threat, and Oklahoma’s offensive line will have to find a way to handle him. Brent Venables offensive line faces a tough test in front of a national audience this weekend, with its problems up front still unresolved.

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