In their second bye week of the season, the Oklahoma Sooners football team is in dire straits. After losing out to Missouri, this is a chance to clear their heads. It’s also a time to prepare for next season.
What Can Oklahoma Sooners Football Fix for 2025?
Risk Averse Sooners
The Sooners are slogging through their worst football season in twenty years. Oklahoma State is doing even worse, serving up a six-game losing streak. Right now, both teams seem content to ride it out until the offseason to fix things. But is that necessary?
It’s understandable to not want to play risky football when the season is on the line. However, that pressure just isn’t on the Sooners anymore. Additionally, by not making any massive changes, it’s clear that Head Coach Brent Venables wants to wait until a new offensive coordinator comes in. As head coach, though, it is his responsibility to take charge of things as they are now. Put simply, waiting until the offseason isn’t an option. Oklahoma Sooners football needs to start preparing for next year, and it needs to start in this bye week.
The Oklahoma Football Standard
Coach Scott Key, one of the best football coaches in Oklahoma history, had an amazing three-season run from 2009-2012. Key understood that he had to start from the ground up. Expecting his players to rise to the occasion and understand football on a conceptual level years beyond them wasn’t, in his eyes, asking too much. Taking inspiration from teams such as Coastal Carolina and South Carolina, Key would go on to two championship games and one all-too-short playoff run.
When Bob Stoops came to Oklahoma in 1999, he had the same understanding. Stoops took on the then-revolutionary Air Raid offense and led his team to the BCS National Championship in 2000. Seth Littrell, one of the many acolytes of that style, kept it going in 2024. Unfortunately, without a line or receiving core, the Air Raid is essentially useless in Norman. Joe Jon Finley, the interim offensive coordinator in the wake of Littrell’s firing, has also been fairly uninspiring. So, without a playbook, mounting injuries, and a lackluster coordinator, what’s the answer? As it always is in Oklahoma, the answer is to defy expectations and take risks.
The Oklahoma Sooners’ Bye Week Playbook
The ideal switch for Oklahoma football during the bye week is to try out the time-tested Wing-T offense. It’s essentially the complete opposite of the Air Raid. The Wing-T favors short passes, counter runs, and bootleg sprints. For a team that currently has tight ends as its best receivers and a quarterback who was the leading rusher for the first half of the season, the Wing-T offers the best opportunity in a quick, total revamp of the Sooners offense. It’s also been incredibly successful when adopted by teams such as Navy this year. Many view this playbook as amateurish, but that may actually be the best part. For a team on the verge of a freshmen revolution, the Wing-T could be a massive asset.
The double-wing, alternatively, is another possibility. It beefs up the offensive line and offers more protection for the quarterback. Yet, at the same time, it requires a team that still has healthy running backs and a strong offensive line. While the double-wing play style is an option, given the current state of the locker room it’s an incredibly risky one.
Finally, and probably the most controversial given Jackson Arnold‘s handling of the ball this year, is the veer. Otherwise known as the Triple Option, most recognize it as the offense of choice for the Army Black Knights. Oftentimes the veer is run with split backs and relies heavily on misdirection and an attentive quarterback. It also gives two or three separate targets for a defense to chase after, instead of just Arnold, alone, in the backfield.
Alabama In The Wings
Despite a stellar locker room, Kalen DeBoer and the Alabama Crimson Tide’s season has been rife with struggles. A visit to Norman to thrash the Sooners is exactly the kind of confidence boost they’re looking for. Unfortunately, as things stand in the bye week, Venables and the Sooners are looking prepared to give it to them.
As Colorado learned a few years ago, the transfer portal is a very real issue in today’s college football world. If Venables and Finley are unwilling to show their best players that they are capable of change, those same players may not see a reason to stick around. Worse yet, given Venables’ track record for recruiting glass cannons, not adapting could convince potential recruits to consider other options.
Coach Venables has to reckon with the fact that time is running out. Next year’s recruiting class, the current class of players, and more is riding on the decisions Venables makes in the next few weeks. Right now, all we know for certain is that Last Word On Sports will be there every week to bring you the latest on all things Oklahoma Sooners football.
