You won’t get far down the list of college football bluebloods without mentioning the Oklahoma Sooners.
With the sixth-most wins (950), seventh-most national championships (7), most conference titles (50), and second-most Heisman winners (7), the Sooners have a long-standing tradition of success.
However, Oklahoma finds itself in a low point right now, as they’ve gone 6-7 in two of their last three seasons and enter 2025 with arguably the toughest schedule in the country.
It will be Year 4 of the Brent Venables’ regime, and if he wants to make it to Year 5, the Sooners had better find some real success.
In fact, according to 247Sports’ Brad Crawford, Venables is facing more pressure than any other coach in the country.
“I know the buyout is considerable, but if he suffers a losing season for a third time in four years at Oklahoma the Sooners are going to be looking for a new head coach after the 2025 season,” Crawford said. “John Mateer, the Washington State quarterback transfer—he’s gotta be a guy. He can’t just be someone that comes in there and has 20 touchdown passes. He’s gotta have 30 to 32 touchdown passes for Oklahoma to be a major contender and for Brent Venables to get off the nation’s hottest seat.”
There’s a blueprint to having success as the quarterback at Oklahoma, but doing it against their 2025 schedule is going to be a daunting task.
The Sooners will host Michigan in Week 2 before opening a ridiculous SEC slate at home against Auburn two weeks later.
From there, Oklahoma’s schedule looks like this: vs. Texas, at South Carolina, Ole Miss, at Tennessee, at Alabama, Missouri, LSU.
Is that schedule conducive to eight or nine wins? Probably not, but that might be what it takes for Venables to keep his job in Norman.
