Buckle up, Oklahoma Sooners fans! Brent Venables’ program ending the 2024 season with an overall record of 6-7 must have left fans with enough trauma. But hold on! The 2025 season is likely to be 100x worse. While the college football world is too perturbed about the Oklahoma HC taking up a new role, this daunting reality is not getting enough attention.

But it’s high time to address the elephant in the room. Yes, they are yet to recover from the Jim Knowles snub. Here awaits a frightening future for them. Sadly, the 2025 schedule is going to leave the Sooners in pieces.  

An uphill battle awaits for Brent Venables 

If Venables and Co. think that they had seen the worst in their debut season in SEC, then they are mistaken. Oklahoma’s 4-1 nonconference record wasn’t enough to overcome a 2-6 mark in SEC play. Yes, the schedule makers did not do the Sooners any favor last year. Rather, they gifted Venables’ program with a gauntlet of a slate. Obviously, that’s when favoritism entered the chat. After all their foes, the Texas Longhorns, had a comfier schedule where they played just two league opponents with a winning conference record. And what about Oklahoma? They played six. Looks like their woes are not going to end anytime soon. 

On That SEC Football Podcast, SEC Insider Chris Marler came up with an in-depth analysis of Venables’ program’s impending doom. “Oklahoma has got nine opponents next season that have odds currently to win the national championship among the top 25 in the country. And that is Michigan, Auburn, Texas, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, and LSU,” stated the insider. Yes, that’s what the future has on hold for the Sooners. 

So, every single game from October 11 is going to test their patience and skills. The insider sounded really upset about how Venables’ program will be dragged through the mud. “I don’t know who in the h- -l decided in the league office to say the h- -l with Oklahoma but it’s it’s a d- – n gauntlet,” said Marler. He then dished out the grim reality, “So they are the only team in the entire Southeastern Conference that’s going to face nine teams that currently have odds to win the national championship among the top 25 in the entire country.” Now you know why Brad Crawford ranked Oklahoma’s schedule as the hardest in his list of ten toughest schedules in college football. So, is it not the right time for Venables to take any chance?

Brent Venables is ready for the challenge 

News has started to do rounds that Ryan Day’s top assistant, DC Knowles, is eyeing a flip. So Venables has been very serious about landing him. As analysts, Zach Barnett and John Brice reported, “Oklahoma has maintained quiet confidence about its chances to hire the architect of the nation’s top total, yards per play, and scoring defense. Industry sources told… Sooners are prepared to offer up to $3 million a year.” But when has been luck in Venables’ favor in recent times?

In this race too, he lost Knowles to Penn State Nittany Lions, who has been reportedly offered a package of “well over” $3 million. So, the Sooners HC had no other option than to take the reins himself. But for the ones doubting the HC trying his luck in playcalling, here are some fact-checks. It’s surely going to make the Sooners fans feel good. 

“Brent Venables took his defense and had two national championships at Clemson, which means he’s got three. But he needs to get one as a head coach at Oklahoma. Because well, that’s what he was brought in here to do,” stated analyst RJ Young on his podcast. Will Brent Venables sink or swim with a high-stakes schedule and so much responsibility ahead of him?