Brent Venables In His First Season
The Oklahoma Sooners football program and its fan base have gone through a lot of emotion in the past year. The departure of Lincoln Riley at the end of the 2021-22 season was a detrimental blow to the team looking forward. Is there anything good from Brent Venables’s first year as Head Coach for the Oklahoma Sooners? We know one thing, the Oklahoma Sooners are looking forward, not behind.
What Lincoln Riley Left Behind
When Lincoln Riley became the Head Coach for the Sooners, he was gifted a great program that Bob Stoops built. On the flip side of his tenure at Oklahoma, Lincoln Riley took much of that greatness with him when he left.
Sooner fans were excited for their future with Riley. He always found a way to bring in great talent, especially at the quarterback position.
Riley leaving hurt the Sooners fans and the program, but it hurt a little more when he took Caleb Williams and others, like some from the coaching staff.
With that said, Lincoln Riley left Oklahoma to build from the ground up with his departure.
Oklahoma Sooners Looking Forward to Their Guy
With a job opening like Oklahoma, there are bound to be plenty of big names pop up in discussion. There was one name that stood out the most, and that’s Brent Venables.
Sooner Nation rallied behind Venables, displayed most during the 2022 Oklahoma spring game.
Oklahoma had the most prominent spring game attendance among all of College Football, with 75,360 in attendance. It was clear that they were excited for the Venables era to arrive in Norman.
Oklahoma Sooners Looking Forward
The 2022 season started strong for the Sooners. They had won their first three games convincingly. Most notably, beating Nebraska in their own stadium 49-14. After that win streak, the Sooners lost three in a row.
This decline was hard to fathom with the way their season started. A complete breakdown in the Red River Rivalry was the toughest the fans had to see in quite some time. They lost that matchup 49-0 without any offensive attack, as they lacked quarterback Dillon Gabriel.
Oklahoma finished their season 6-6 with a close loss to Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl.
A losing record is not how Sooners fans wanted their season to end with their first-year head coach. All they can do at this point is look forward.
Oklahoma Sooners Looking Forward To Recruiting
Although the Sooners ended the season with their hopes let down, they can rest easy knowing that the future can only get better from here.
The Oklahoma Sooners must be looking forward now that their team ended fourth in the nation in recruiting. Venables and his crew were able to pick up 14 of the ESPN 300 top recruits in the country. This recruiting is no easy task, especially considering the season they just ended.
The recruits that Oklahoma can pull in should show the dedication Venables has to make this program great again. Each of these recruits has to understand that they were hand selected specifically for this program’s needs.
Oklahoma Sooners fans can rest easy knowing they have a bright future of guys who will help this team.
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