Hot Seat Alert: Oklahoma's Brent Venables faces huge challenge for the rest of 2024

Brent Venables is one of the top and most respected defensive minds in the country. In 2024, it's not his defense that's the problem.

Oklahoma currently ranks No. 96 in the country in scoring offense and though the Sooners have tried multiple quarterbacks, nothing has seemed to work as of yet. Against SEC foes, Oklahoma has scored 15 (Tennessee), 27 (Auburn), and 3 (Texas). The Sooners are currently sitting at 4-2 (1-2 in the SEC), but things could quickly get worse for them if things don't turn around offensively and in a hurry.

Oklahoma plays South Carolina this weekend in Norman. Though the Sooners are favorites, South Carolina has competed with top-tier teams like Alabama and LSU, and the Gamecocks have the defensive talent to keep Oklahoma from scoring. If that's the case, this will likely be a low-scoring, ugly affair that could go either way.

After the Gamecocks, Oklahoma will finish out the season with a road tilt at Ole Miss, a home game against Maine, a road game against Missouri, back home against Alabama, and then on the road against LSU to close out the season.

Outside of Maine, how many of those are guaranteed wins?

Will Brent Venables find himself on the hot seat?

SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum recently shared that he believes Brent Venables could soon find himself on the hot seat, and there are certainly reasons to agree with him.

"Beating Texas last year helped preserve his position," Finebaum said via Athlon Sports. "And Joe Castiglione gave him that big extension to quiet everyone down. If he's not careful, with a few more losses, fans are going to start chirping again. That is the nature of being at a school like Oklahoma."

Let's say Oklahoma goes on to lose four of its last six and, as a result, the Sooners are sitting at 6-6 in their first year in the SEC. As Finebaum noted, we've already heard Oklahoma fans chirp before about potentially wanting to move on from Brent Venables, and a blowout loss to Texas with a lackluster record certainly isn't going to help his case for staying in Norman following this season.

Unless things turn around in a hurry, one thing will be for sure: Brent Venables will enter the 2025 season with one of the hottest seats in America if he's still in Oklahoma.

That is a program and fanbase that has had stability for a long time. They know what it's like to be at the top — even if they're not winning National Championships, they're competing near the top — and they're not going to accept barely becoming bowl-eligible, especially with what's happening just down the road in Austin.

Assuming Venables is around after this season, it's become quite apparent he'll need to make some wholesale changes to his offensive staff. It seems likely at this point that he'll move on from Seth Littrell at the end of this season, but that's not a guarantee. Others like Joe Jon Finley and DeMarco Murray could also be on the chopping block.

In addition to making changes to the staff, Oklahoma needs to find its answer at quarterback. Is Michael Hawkins Jr. going to develop into something special? Do the Sooners go back to Jackson Arnold? Is the answer found elsewhere?

As far as the two guys currently on the roster, both have delivered mixed bags thus far, and at some point, Venables is going to have to make a decision for the future because it's simply not likely in today's Transfer Portal age that both will stay in Oklahoma following this season.

When you consider all the uncertainty for Oklahoma — particularly on offense — it's easy to see why Venables' name could soon become synonymous with the proverbial "hot seat." For now, though, we'll just have to wait and see how the games unfold.