One word you'll hear a lot if you follow college athletics is "alignment". Universities, athletic departments, and coaches all want alignment for their respective programs and teams. The Oklahoma Sooners have seen a number of changes to their football alignment in the last few years, and there's a strong cast of characters, but this season has been far from what any of them had expected.
OU's alignment is made up of familiar names and new faces for Sooner Nation, and if the program makes big changes in the near or intermediate future, these are the folks tasked with making them. Whether things are going well or poorly, these are the people who are in charge.
Let's start at the top and work our way down, looking at the big names who call the shots
for OU Football.
Joseph Harroz Jr.
- Title: University President
Let's start at the very top. Harroz is the president of the University of Oklahoma, and the buck stops with him. Along with the Board of Regents, led by chair Rick Nagel, he is responsible for so much more than just OU Football or OU Athletics. However, if a big decision is coming up for the program's future, he'll certainly be involved.
Roger Denny
- Title: Vice President and Director of Athletics
Roger Denny runs Oklahoma's athletics department. He's got less than a year on the job. He took over when longtime athletics director Joe Castiglione (now the emeritus athletics director) retired. Denny's unique background is what drew OU to him, as the Sooners went with an unconventional AD hire in the new age of college athletics. Ultimately, Denny has the final say on head coaches. He also oversees stadium renovations and facility upgrades.
Denny also leads the charge on fundraising for the football program with donors, boosters, and the like. It's a money game in college football, now more than ever, and OU has to spend plenty of money in multiple different areas to have success at the level that the standard that's been set in Norman requires. That lands at Denny's feet. Castiglione's longtime right-hand man, Larry Naifeh, is now the Special Assistant to the Athletics Director.
Randall Stephenson
- Title: Chair and Special Advisor for OU Athletics
Randall Stephenson is the former CEO of AT&T, and he now plays a major role in the Oklahoma athletics department, especially in the football program. He's been heavily involved in things like the search for the new AD and contract extensions for head coaches. While not the ultimate decision-maker, he certainly has a voice and influence in many things OU football.
Jerry Schmidt
- Title: Elite Performance Liaison
Jerry Schmidt is in his first season in his new role, after a long run as the head strength and conditioning coach. His role is similar to that of a chief of staff, and he's replacing the retired Woody Glass in the role. He serves as a bit of a right-hand man to the head coach, and he's clearly someone OU football wanted to have in an important role, even if it wasn't leading the strength staff anymore.
Other important names like Director of Football Operations Jacob Maloney and Assistant Director of Football Operations Cade Kimzey are also a big part of the program, even if they aren't as forward-facing as some of the other people on this list. They are instrumental in making sure the Sooners are ready on game day.
Jim Nagy
- Title: General Manager
Nagy has become a central figure in OU Football over the last couple of years. He was hired as the general manager in February of 2025, replacing Curtis Lofton. He is responsible for building Oklahoma's roster and putting the best possible team on the field, while acquiring players through high school recruiting and the transfer portal. He was another forward-thinking hire in the name, image, and likeness era of college football. His team, which includes Senior Assistant General Manager Lake Dawson and Assistant General Manager Taylor Redd, works very closely with the coaching staff to put the best possible product on the field.
Oklahoma Football has a number of other important figures in the front office and support staff that work behind the scenes. Senior Director of Player Personnel Stacey Ford and Director of Player Personnel Drew Hill are also a part of the front office, working under Nagy to help set Oklahoma Football up for success.
Brent Venables
- Title: Head Coach
Venables is the face of the Oklahoma Sooners, and though a head coach's job is slightly different these days, the bulk of it is still the same. Venables' job is to win games at OU, and to have the team he's helped to assemble play to its maximum potential. He's also responsible for crafting the identity and ethos of the program. It all lands on his desk. That's really just scratching the surface of Venables' job.
Venables builds and leads the coaching staff that creates game plans and coaches players. For Oklahoma, Venables himself runs the defense and serves as the de facto defensive coordinator. Co-defensive coordinator Todd Bates is his top lieutenant on that side of the ball. The other side of the ball is led by offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, while the third phase of the game is led by special teams coordinator Doug Deakin. If this season continues on its current trajectory, Venables may have some difficult staff decisions to make before those decisions are taken out of his hands. The position coaches and analysts report to both Venables and the coordinators he's hired to lead them.
That coaching staff is responsible for the development of the 114 players on the Oklahoma roster this year (built by Nagy and Venables in tandem), as is the strength staff, led by Director of Sports Enhancement and Strength and Conditioning James Dobson, who replaced Schmidt in the role. The product on the field on Saturdays is a result of what happens in the offseason, what happens in fall camp, and what happens in practice. That's the responsibility of the coaching staff, led by their head coach. If the players have what they need to succeed and are executing well, the coaching staff is doing their jobs well.
The Sooners felt really good about their football alignment coming into the season, but there's a lot of work to be done if this year is going to turn around and still find success. OU likes who they have in the leadership positions, but none of these men are bigger than the program. Oklahoma Football demands success at the highest level, and the Sooners have a tall hill to climb if they're going to have better results in 2026.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Oklahoma Football leadership in 2026
