OU Football: Where’s Sooners HC Brent Venables Rank Among College Football Head Coaches?

The offseason is truly here in the college football world. All attention has turned toward EA Sports College Football — the return of the college football video game after a decade-long hiatus. It makes sense, too. Spring football is in the past, the transfer portal has wound down and there’s not much motion around the sport as things stand now.

With this, publications like CBS Sports are rolling out their college football rankings in every capacity, including rankings for head coaches in the sport. Naturally, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables was slighted in the rankings.

Sooners’ Brent Venables receives low ranking among head coaches

Venables took over a program on the verge of a collapse — well as far down as a blue blood like the Sooners could go. Lincoln Riley left the program high and dry after the program announced a move to the SEC, which is finally taking place. Venables was his successor, posting a 6-7 record in his first season as the team’s head coach. He then posted a 10-3 record a season ago, which showed a massive program and culture turnaround.

In their college football head coaches ranking, Venables was dubbed the No. 34-ranked coach among power conference programs. CBS Sports analyst Tom Fornelli broke the decision down.

“The Oklahoma coach took heat after a 6-7 record in his first season, but the change in approach and culture for the program wasn’t something that would take immediately,” Fornelli explained.

It proved to be true, the team got four wins better from Venables’ first season to the next. Now, heading into year three, Venables has new coordinators on both sides of the ball, which projects another jump in production and competition incoming. It was needed heading into the SEC, where settling for mediocrity is unacceptable.

“We began to see the positive effects last year as the Sooners improved to 10-3 and went 7-2 in the Big 12. Now we wait to see how the Sooners adapt to life in the SEC where the schedule gets tougher but expectations won’t lower. I don’t know how it’ll go in Year 1, but I do think this program is better equipped along the lines of scrimmage to deal with it than they were before Venables’ arrival,” Fornelli continued.

SEC success will raise Venables’ stock

The first two years in Venables’ stint have been questionable, starting with a losing season. That narrative will completely flip, should the Sooners find success in the SEC. Winning in the toughest league in all of college football would do wonders for the narrative around him as a head coach of a blue blood program. A No. 34 ranking feels low for a guy coaching a program to the pedigree of Oklahoma, and the longer he coaches the Sooners, the more he’ll climb the rankings as a head coach in college football.