The Sooners' season still had a pulse going into Saturday afternoon. After a lifeless showing against the Gamecocks, that is no longer the case. Oklahoma extended their win-loss-win-loss streak to 10 games, and their bad season-good-season-bad season streak to every year of Brent Venable's tenure. Now, the entire program is faced with an identity crisis and fan apathy that has not been felt in Norman since the late 90's.
There have been down seasons before. Things happen, even at good programs. But in elite programs, consistency is the standard, and bad years are few and far between. Playing .500 football every other year is officially a pattern for Venables's teams, and unacceptable at the University of Oklahoma.
While the defense had its worst performance in recent memory (25% of their missed tackles on the entire season occurred Saturday), it has not been the real source of problems in Brent's time in Norman. He is one of the best defensive coordinators in college football history, and is still proving that this season. The real issue, as it has been for most of his time as head coach, is the offense, and his inability or unwillingness to prioritize it as much as the defense. There were countless procedural penalties on the offense on Saturday, as has been the case all season. They play less disciplined, are less talented, and have been the clear weakness for five seasons. That is the head coach's responsibility to correct, and he is paid extremely handsomely to do so.
So handsomely, in fact, that he has become virtually unfireable. The problem is, when there is failure at this magnitude in a career such as coaching, someone has to be held accountable for the organization to maintain credibility. Nobody should be joyful about someone losing their job; however, that's also the nature of the business they chose to make a career out of. So for the University to maintain credibility and financial investment from their alumni base and major donors, change is going to have to happen, immediately. It can't be Brent Venables because of his recent extension. And that likely means he gets to/has to scapegoat his offensive coordinator, again.
That, really, is the heart of the problem OU finds itself in. After Jeff Lebby left, Venables hired Seth Littrell, which backfired almost immediately. When he hired Ben Arbuckle that following December, the general consensus was that he had to get that one right to keep his job. He didn't. The worst part is that it really may not be Arbuckle's fault – in fact, don't be surprised to see him have immense success somewhere in the next few years if he is let go soon. The real issue is that his quarterback John Mateer is just not quite talented enough to consistently succeed against SEC defenses.
But generally speaking, almost nobody is. There has arguably not been a single SEC quarterback this season who hasn't had their fare share of difficulties. Which is why, fair or not, it circles back around to Ben Arbuckle. It is beyond identifying fault at this point. It's about holding someone accountable for what can only be described as a failure. OU's offense is ranked in the 100s in most categories. If they were in the 50s, they would probably have one loss and be a top 5 team when the first Playoff rankings come out soon. But they're not, so they won't be, and it doesn't really matter exactly why. What matters is that the team's success is Brent Venables's responsibilty, and he can't be fired right now. The offense (including the quarterback) is Ben Arbuckle's responsibility, and it hasn't been good, and it is too late to improve.
Will they do it? I'm sure we'll find out Monday. There have been rumblings of shakeups on the various insider message boards. Will it matter for this season? No. Not at all. This season is what it is at this point. What matters is finding a way to build positive momentum back for next season out of virtually nothing. Fair or not, change in leadership is one of the very limited ways of doing so. Other programs with much fewer resources have found ways to be highly competitive in one season of turnover by making the right hires and scouting well. It can be done. It has to be done, if the OU athletic department is going to survive the current landscape of college sports.
That's a scary task, indeed.