The Oklahoma Sooners are looking to turn the page after their 21-13 loss against the Kentucky Wildcats last week. OU hits the road for a Saturday afternoon clash against the Mississippi State Bulldogs this week, where head coaches Brent Venables and Jeff Lebby will face off for the first time since working together for two seasons.
Lebby was Venables' first offensive coordinator after he got the OU job, and he put together what remain the two best offensive seasons of Venables' time in Norman. The Sooners have faced off against former play-callers before, but this head-coaching matchup is important for two men who know each other well.
Today, we'll look at each of Oklahoma's offensive play-callers, starting with the 1999 season. To be clear, we'll look only
at the coaches who called the plays on offense each season, and we'll exclude co-offensive coordinators who never called plays. Despite the downturn on that side of the ball over the past few years, the Sooners were regularly among the nation's best on offense up until then. With the heat on OU's current offensive coordinator as the Sooners prepare to visit the last successful one in Norman, let's look back at who has sat in that seat in the modern era.
Mike Leach: 1999
- 1999: 36.8 ppg (8th nationally)
When Bob Stoops became Oklahoma's head coach ahead of the 1999 season, Stoops first offensive coordinator hire was Kentucky's Mike Leach. Though he spent only one year at OU, Leach helped turn the offense around in Norman, setting the stage for bigger things to come. He installed the Air Raid and helped the Sooners score nearly 37 points per game. Texas Tech took notice and hired Leach as head coach the following year.
Leach led the Red Raiders from 2000 to 2009 and Washington State from 2012 to 2019. He then was the head caoch at Mississippi State from 2020 until his tragic passing in 2022. He is one of the most influential coaches in college football history, and he most definitely had an impact at Oklahoma as well.
Mark Mangino: 2000 to 2001
- 2000: 39.0 ppg (7th nationally)
- 2001: 32.2 ppg (27th nationally)
When Leach left, offensive line coach Mark Mangino became offensive coordinator after Stoops hired him away from Kansas State to join his initial staff, along with several other assistants. It was Mangino at the controls of the offense when Oklahoma won its most recent national championship, scoring 39 points per game during their unbeaten run. Though the offense wasn't quite as good the next season, Mangino called the shots for two very successful seasons in the early Stoops years.
Mangino added more balance and more running emphasis to the OU offense, and after two seasons he was hired as Kansas' head coach. He spent 2002 to 2009 in Lawrence, and had stints as an assistant at Youngstown State and Iowa State after his time as a head coach was over.
Chuck Long: 2002 to 2005
- 2002: 38.6 ppg (5th nationally)
- 2003: 42.9 ppg (3rd nationally)
- 2004: 34.8 ppg (14th nationally)
- 2005: 26.9 ppg (56th nationally)
When Mangino left, quarterbacks coach Chuck Long became offensive coordinator. He'd been at OU since 2000, coming over from Iowa to coach the QBs after Leach left. Kevin Wilson was the co-offensive coordinator for these four seasons, but it was Long who was calling the plays. The Sooners put together some very strong offenses during this time period, helping the team reach the national title game in 2003 and 2004.
Despite the offense taking a dramatic dip in 2005, San Diego State hired Long as its head coach after the season. He coached the Aztecs from 2006 to 2008, then was Kansas' offensive coordinator in 2010 and 2011. After that he had multiple stints coaching spring football. Long installed more pro-style concepts into the Sooner offense, continuing the commitment to the run that was established under Mangino.
Kevin Wilson: 2006 to 2010
- 2006: 30.3 ppg (19th nationally)
- 2007: 42.3 ppg (5th nationally)
- 2008: 51.1 ppg (1st nationally)
- 2009: 31.1 ppg (29th nationally)
- 2010: 37.2 ppg (14th nationally)
After Long's departure, Wilson was promoted to offensive coordinator and play-caller. OU hired him in 2002 after three strong years at Northwestern, and he coached the offensive line under Long for four seasons before getting the play-calling gig. Kevin Sumlin served as co-offensive coordinator in 2006 and 2007, but Wilson called the shots.
Wilson put together some of the best offenses in OU history, including the 2008 unit that led the country and averaged over 51 points per game. The Sooners made it to the national championship game that year. Wilson never had an offense average less than 30 points per game when he was the play-caller. He led some devastating units, bringing the Sooners into more of a power spread era.
Indiana hired Wilson as its head coach after the 2010 season, and he served there from 2011 to 2016. After very successful stint as Ohio State's offensive coordinator from 2017 to 2022, he was Tulsa's head coach in 2023 and 2024. He's been back at OU for the past two seasons, and he is currently Oklahoma's Assistant Head Coach for Offense.
Josh Heupel: 2011 to 2014
- 2011: 39.5 ppg (10th nationally)
- 2012: 38.2 ppg (16th nationally)
- 2013: 32.8 ppg (40th nationally)
- 2014: 36.4 ppg (21st nationally)
When Wilson left, quarterbacks coach Josh Heupel was promoted to offensive coordinator and play-caller. After a stellar career as a Sooners player, he coached at OU every year from 2004 to 2010, except for one year at Arizona in 2005. Jay Norvell served as the co-offensive coordinator for each of these four seasons, but Heupel called the pays the entire time.
Heupel initially continued OU's offensive success under Wilson, but the Sooners struggled on that side of the ball in 2013 and 2014. During his tenure, he transitioned the Sooners to a zone-read, spread-based offense, but they also ran the ball at a high rate. Stoops made the decision to fire both Heupel and Norvell after the 2014 season, a choice that is still reverberating throughout college football to this day.
Heupel has reinvented himself since that moment, starting as the offensive coordinator at both Utah State (2015) and Missouri (2016-2017), before serving as UCF's head coach from 2018 to 2020. Then, he was hired as Tennessee's head coach ahead of the 2021 season, and he's been there ever since. The Volunteers made their first trip to the playoff in 2024, and they're trying to chase down another CFP berth under Heupel this season.
Lincoln Riley: 2015 to 2021
- 2015: 43.5 ppg (4th nationally)
- 2016: 43.9 ppg (3rd nationally)
- 2017: 45.1 ppg (3rd nationally)
- 2018: 48.4 ppg (1st nationally)
- 2019: 42.1 ppg (6th nationally)
- 2020: 43.0 ppg (6th nationally)
- 2021: 39.1 ppg (8th nationally)
For the first time since he hired Leach in 1999, Stoops now had to look outside the building for his offensive coordinator and play-caller. He hired East Carolina's Lincoln Riley, a Leach Air Raid disciple who brought the Sooners back to that offensive system. During his two seasons as the OC, Riley turned the offense around, with top-five units and over 43 points per game in 2015 and 2016.
Stoops retired ahead of the 2017 season, and Riley was promoted to head coach. He promoted position coaches Cale Gundy and Bill Bedenbaugh to co-offensive coordinators, but he remained the play-caller for his five years at the helm. Riley's offenses were regularly among the best in the country, always ranking in the top 10 and always scoring at least 39 points per game. The Sooners made the CFP in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019.
After the 2021 regular season, Riley shocked the college football world by departing to become the head coach at USC, and he's still there today. Gundy called the offensive plays in the 2021 Alamo Bowl victory, and that stunning decision marked the start of a new era for Oklahoma.
Jeff Lebby: 2022 to 2023
- 2022: 32.8 ppg (33rd nationally)
- 2023: 41.7 ppg (4th nationally)
When Brent Venables was hired as OU's new head coach ahead of the 2022 season, the defensive-minded coach chose Ole Miss' Jeff Lebby to be his first offensive coordinator. Lebby had been successful at Baylor and UCF before joining the Rebels, and he brought his up-tempo veer-and-shoot attack to Norman. He called the two most successful offenses of the Venables era to date, and his 2023 unit was one of the nation's five best, scoring over 41 points per game.
Lebby was hired as Mississippi State's head coach after that 2023 season, and he's currently in his third year in Starkville. Now, he'll face his former school and his former boss for the first time on Saturday, as he's in the midst of his best year yet with the Bulldogs. The Sooners have been searching for offensive success since Lebby left, and the fact that the offense is still stuck in the mud is a major talking point heading into this matchup.
Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley: 2024
- 2024: 24.0 ppg (97th nationally)
After Lebby left, Venables promoted from within, making Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley the co-offensive coordinators. Littrell, the former North Texas head coach, would be the play-caller. Oklahoma's offense was an abject disaster in 2024, and Littrell lasted only seven games before he was fired him midseason.
Finley, who'd been a position coach in Norman since 2021, was named the interim offensive coordinator, and Venables promoted analyst Kevin Johns to interim co-offensive coordinator. However, Finley, who originally came over from Ole Miss, would call the plays for the remainder of the year. The results weren't much better, and OU had its worst offense since 1998, the year before Stoops was hired. That offense was an amalgamation of Lebby's scheme, Littrell's preferences from his coaching background, and, eventually, whatever Finley could come up with in the running game to try to succeed. None of it worked.
Littrell is now an analyst at Tennessee, while Finley spent one more year on OU's staff as a position coach before moving on to be an analyst at Texas State this season.
Ben Arbuckle: 2025 to present
- 2025: 26.2 ppg (79th nationally)
- 2026 (through Week 7): 21.3 ppg (113th nationally)
After the Littrell-Finley debacle, Venables hired Washington State's Ben Arbuckle as OU's next offensive coordinator and play-caller. After a 2025 season that saw the Sooners take a small step forward on offense, Arbuckle is certainly on the hot seat after Oklahoma's offense has dipped back down through six games in 2026.
If you remove defensive (1) and special teams (2) touchdowns, OU's offense averages 17.8 points per game through Week 7. If you eliminate the UTEP game, that number drops to 12.6 points per game. That's compared to a defense that ranks 30th nationally and gives up just 18.2 points per game.
However, if you eliminate touchdowns that the OU offense gave the opposing defense, the Sooners are allowing just 15.8 points per game. If you take away points given up when the OU offense basically gave the opponent an offensive score off of a turnover, the Sooners are allowing only 12.5 points per game through six games. That's a microcosm of where OU's season is going wrong right now.
Despite having a good pedigree and sitting in a seat where many former OU play-callers have had an abundance of success, Arbuckle hasn't been able to get the offense back to the way it's been for the heavy majority of the 21st century. He comes from an Air Raid background, but the Sooners have struggled to find an offensive identity, especially this year. An offseason commitment to the running game hasn't worked out, and it has resulted in a disjointed and ineffective offense.
With six games left in the year, Arbuckle is coaching to keep his job in Norman. Under Venables, offensive competence has mostly eluded the Sooners for the past three seasons. Now, Oklahoma gets a reunion with Lebby on Saturday, the only offensive play-caller who has truly had an effective group at OU with Venables at the helm.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Stacking up each of Oklahoma's offensive play-callers since 1999
