The Oklahoma Sooners were not nearly good enough on offense in their 17-10 loss to Michigan on the road in Week 2. Despite head coach Brent Venables rebuilding the defensive side of the ball since getting the job, the offense has been putrid for going on three seasons now. Just two games into the 2026 season, OU stands at an offensive crossroads.
After last season, Venables and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle spent the offseason talking about how the Sooners were going to fix their "pathetic" running game. It made sense. Oklahoma had begun to forge an identity around strong defense, winning the field position battle and the turnover battle, playing well on special teams, and trying to chew the clock and shorten games. In order to do that,
you need a good running game.
Venables and general manager Jim Nagy bet on quarterback John Mateer this offseason, believing that he was the guy who was a star last September, and that his issues in October and November were due to his broken thumb. They wanted to take some of the weight of the offense off of Mateer's shoulders, so they added some weapons in the transfer portal, re-signed most of the offensive line, and rebuilt the tight end room around players who knew how to block. A good running game, they reasoned, would take the pressure off of their quarterback.
In the season opener against UTEP, the Sooners showed off an offense that looked different than it did last year. Playing multiple tight ends at a time, Oklahoma committed to pounding the rock. After the offseason of trying to fix the running game, it looked like the Sooners might have a different look on offense in 2026.
However, the Sooners quickly abandoned that against the Wolverines. When things got tough, Arbuckle went right back to what the offense looked like last season, with not enough commitment to the ground game, fewer multiple tight end sets, and putting everything on Mateer's plate while asking him to save the day. He was not able to do it.
So, Oklahoma now stands at a crossroads on offense. On the one hand, Arbuckle is an Air Raid coach. It's what he knows, and it is how he made his name. One direction the Sooners could take is moving the offense back toward that approach, which likely simplifies things for Arbuckle and Mateer, as it gets them back to their roots. However, the issue there is that an offensive scheme like that doesn't really fit into the identity, or likely the best interests of the overall team. Oklahoma wants to let their defense control games, so they need to get better at running the ball, not get away from trying to do it as much.
The other concern there is that the Sooners don't have the quarterback to run that type of offense. Mateer is a great athlete; he's tough as nails, and he's a gutsy competitor. He has the ability to make some great throws, but he's just not going to be able to dice a defense up from the pocket; it's not who he is. After watching Saturday's game, the Sooners also might not have the receivers to run an offense like that, as they struggled to gain separation when Michigan played man coverage.
On the other hand, the Sooners could lean harder into a more pro-style offense that emphasizes the run game first, with multiple tight ends, and multiple different formations and structures. It would fit better overall into the full team philosophy, but it's not the native language for Arbuckle and Mateer. Even though that's the direction Sooner Nation thought the offense was going in during the offseason, Oklahoma would be asking Arbuckle to call an offense with which he's not as familiar. With a plethora of tough opponents coming up, how would that actually look in the heat of the moment on the field?
Additionally, OU might not have the offensive line or running backs to pull off an offense like that. Committing to the run game only works if the run game works. Otherwise, the defense can tee off when you bring wide receivers back into the game and line up in spread sets. That's what happened on Saturday in Ann Arbor.
The solution probably lies somewhere in the middle. Firstly, OU has to commit to running the ball until it's proven that it won't work. Arbuckle didn't give them that chance last week, despite some promising carries from running back Lloyd Avant. Whether run-game commitment comes from an Air Raid structure, a multiple structure, or both, the Sooners simply can't give up on running the ball as easily as they did in the Big House.
At quarterback, Mateer is a fifth-year player, and he seems to pretty much be what he is at this point. So, the Sooners need to find a way to build the offense around his strengths. If that means running him a lot, fine, as long as the running backs are also getting their fair share of carries. In the passing game, Oklahoma needs to find ways to get him easy completions and simplify things for a QB with plenty of ability who isn't a pocket passer. The entire offense can't be on his shoulders.
The Sooners' goal isn't to light the world on fire on offense right now. They aren't capable of that. Oklahoma should look for something on offense they can do well, then build counters around it. Running the ball has to be an emphasis, as should setting up Mateer better to do the things he does well.
OU has to find a functional offense very quickly. While Venables' defense wasn't at its best on Saturday, there are very few coaches in college football who know defense as well as he does. It's reasonable to believe that he'll have that unit improving as the year goes along. If he doesn't, that's a whole separate conversation, but Oklahoma has to figure something out on offense, or it ultimately won't matter much in the win-loss department.
Like it or not, that win-loss department is ultimately how coaches, especially head coaches, are judged and measured in college football.
Oklahoma offensive play-callers by season since 1999
- 1999: Mike Leach
- 2000-2001: Mark Mangino
- 2002-2005: Chuck Long
- 2006-2010: Kevin Wilson
- 2011-2014: Josh Heupel
- 2015-2021: Lincoln Riley
- 2022-2023: Jeff Lebby
- 2024: Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley
- 2025-present: Ben Arbuckle
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X@Aaron_Gelvin.
This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: OU's offense sits at a crossroads after just two games
