The Oklahoma Sooners' stunningroad loss to the Michigan Wolverines led some national media members to question head coach Brent Venables. Being the head coach at Oklahoma always comes with unique pressure, and Venables has felt that in his tenure.
He went 6-7 in his first season, then responded with a 10-3 season before going 6-7 again, then 10-3 and making the College Football Playoff last season. During his tenure, questions have been raised about whether he was the right fit for the job.
One of those is ESPN's Paul Finebaum, who questioned if Venables is a top-20 coach in college football.
"I still don't know if Brent Venables is a top-flight coach," Finebaum said on 'The Matt Barrie Show.' "He's not one of the top 20 coaches in America, and
that showed on Saturday."
There is still plenty of season left for Venables to change the perception surrounding his program. Oklahoma has already shown that it can dominate lesser competition, but the Michigan loss exposed some of the same questions that have followed the Sooners into Venables' fifth season: Can they consistently execute against quality opponents, particularly when the margin for error is small?
That question becomes even more important with the tough schedule ahead. The Sooners don't need to win every game to prove Finebaum wrong, but they do need to show that the Michigan loss was an early setback rather than evidence of a larger problem.
Ultimately, Finebaum's top-20 assessment is a judgment on Venables' body of work, not just one afternoon in Ann Arbor. The quickest way for Venables to change that judgment is to make the Sooners relevant in the biggest games still ahead, and turn another season of promise into sustained results.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Paul Finebaum questions if OU's Brent Venables is a 'top-flight' coach
