The Oklahoma Sooners are having a rough 2026 season after so much promise in 2025. The Sooners went 10-3 and made the College Football Playoff in 2025, and started 2026 ranked in the top-10 with national championship aspirations.
However, after nine games, Oklahoma sits at 5-4, with its national championship, College Football Playoff and SEC Title chances all but gone. That's brought into question whether Brent Venables is still the right man for the job. Venables has been at Oklahoma for five seasons. He's had two 10-win seasons and two losing seasons. This year is teetering on another losing season, which is below the standard of a place like Oklahoma.
However, University of Oklahoma Board of Regents chair Rick Nagel dismissed any notion that
Venables is on the hot seat.
"The board doesn’t typically comment much on what’s going on in the athletic department," Nagel said via The Oklahoman's Joe Mussatto. "That’s maybe a smart thing. But I want to say this … our head coach, Brent Venables, is not on the hot seat."
"There is no hot seat," Nagel continued. "We just extended his contract."
Nagel's comments clearly indicate that Oklahoma's leadership is not preparing to make a coaching change despite the disappointing results in 2026. The Sooners entered the season expecting to compete for championships, but the struggles have put the program in a position where finishing strong is now the priority. Venables' contract extension also gives him some stability as he works to get Oklahoma back on track.
That does not mean the pressure disappears. Oklahoma still has to show progress over the final stretch of the season, particularly with the program's expectations and resources. Venables has demonstrated that he can lead the Sooners to 10-win seasons and the College Football Playoff, but the challenge now is finding the consistency needed to make that level of success the standard in Norman. The coming weeks could go a long way toward shaping the direction of the program heading into 2027.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Is Oklahoma's Brent Venables on the hot seat?
