Just when you thought you’d seen it all in college football’s rat race of contract lunacy, Oklahoma upped the ante in August.
The Sooners pushed their chips in on Brent Venables with the confidence of someone holding pocket aces. Then, the season started, and Oklahoma had to reveal its hand. It didn’t have squat, and its big bet amounted to a waste of money.
What’s a waste of money look like?
It looks like a 42-25 loss to South Carolina.
“It’s just embarrassing,” Venables said afterward. “It’s embarrassing in every way.”
He was referring to the game, but his words also apply to that preseason
contract extension.
An embarrassing bit of business.
What's next for Oklahoma? Sooners hitched themselves to Brent Venables
Do you know who was kicking down Oklahoma’s door after last season to steal Venables?
Nobody.
Oklahoma bid against itself, a hallmark move within College Sports Inc.
Credit Shane Beamer for rallying the Gamecocks when their season looked cooked just a few weeks ago. He’s officially off the hot seat.
Venables might be roasting on it, if not for Oklahoma recklessly hitching its schooner to a middling coach.
If Oklahoma (4-4) finishes this season below .500 — and that’s where this is headed, can’t you see? — it’ll be the third time in Venables’ five seasons that he served a losing record.
It’s a resume that ought to raise questions about Venables’ job security, but because of the preseason extension, Oklahoma would owe Venables more than $51 million if it fired him.
Contract lunacy, pure and simple.
“Just disappointed,” Venables said after losing to South Carolina for the second time in the past three seasons. “I watched the game. Everybody else watched the game. They were the more physical team and they created explosive plays. We couldn’t get any offensive rhythm.”
A lack of offensive rhythm will become the epitaph of the Venables experience. Even when his Sooners made the playoff last season, offense came in fits and starts.
Brent Venables buyout protects him, but not his staff
Because a coaching change would be so expensive, this probably ends with staff changes, and Venables likely will reload behind a new quarterback and a different offensive vision next season.
He wouldn’t discuss either possibility after this loss.
“I’m not ready to say anything,” Venables said when asked about the possibility of benching quarterback John Mateer. Seconds before that, he dodged a question about staff changes.
Venables doesn’t need to say it. As he put it, everybody else watched the game, and we see what a broken offense and an insufficient quarterback look like.
So, we can say what he won’t: Offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle stands on thin ice on a warm day.
Arbuckle and Mateer came to Oklahoma from Washington State in what amounted to a coordinator-quarterback package deal. The SEC’s rigors humbled them both.
If Venables tries another coordinator next season, it’ll be the fifth OC of his tenure.Jeff Lebby was the only one up to the job. The Sooners can't return to that well. Lebby is coaching Mississippi State.
When Venables’ job was on the line last season, he returned to his roots and took over defensive play-calling. Good move. For the past year and a half, his defense carried the water. That overworked and overstressed defense that had helped prevent disaster up to this point finally gave up the ghost against South Carolina.
When announcing the contract extension, athletic director Roger Denny explained there “isn’t a better ambassador for Oklahoma football” than Venables.
A fine ambassador, perhaps, and a proven defense coordinator, too, but that’s not the job.
At Oklahoma, the assignment for any coach is to win, and win often.
Venables’ Oklahoma win percentage sits at an even .600. For perspective, LSU fired Brian Kelly after his LSU win percentage dipped to .708.
Venables’ win rate puts him one rung above ex-Sooners coach Snorter Luster. At least ol’ Snorter had an explanation for his bumpy tenure: His players left to go fight a war. Luster coached during World War II, and dozens of Sooners players left the team to join the fight.
What’s Venables’ excuse? He’s not offering any. He’s owning up to this mess.
“I’m incredibly pissed at myself,” he said.
Buck up, Coach. The ink’s still fresh on that contract extension.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brent Venables admits Oklahoma is 'embarrassing.' So was his contract extension
