The Oklahoma Sooners are in for a make or break season in 2025 as this season could determine the fate of the Brent Venables era. After barely getting to a bowl game last year, winning six games in their first SEC season, the heat is on for this team to produce wins in a big way. They did have a lot of changes happen during the offseason, so this program will definitely look a lot different from a year ago. Let’s go over how each unit will look this fall.
First let’s look into this offense. Last year this offense was subpar at best going through a revolving door at QB with Jackson Arnold and then freshman Michael Hawkins. Arnold transferred, so who do they have now? Just one of the most underrated quarterbacks in the nation in John Mateer from Washington State.
He led the Cougars to eight wins last year, people could’ve argued that he was a Heisman Trophy candidate last year at some point when Wazzu was undefeated mid-season. He left there after the year as he had, and both his head coach leaving along with his offensive coordinator. Luckily enough for him, his OC is also with the Sooners now. Ben Arbuckle is one of the best young offensive minds in the college game.
That continuity between Arbuckle and Mateer will go a long way for the learning curve as both look to get the offense on track fast. Mateer will bring a completely different type of play style for the Sooners that will remind fans of Baker Mayfield. His competitiveness and swagger are a few of the similarities between the two. Not only did they add Mateer as a big transfer, but the Sooners got one of the best running backs to enter the portal as well in Jaydn Ott.
He had a tough season in 2024 dealing with injuries, but the year before he had over 1,500 total yards and 14 TDs with the Cal Bears. The next big name to discuss is Deion Burks, who is in line to have a huge year being the No. 1 option. He's a smaller guy, but has great hands and the ability to just get open. This duo will look eerily similar to the Baker-Dede Westbrook connection with more question marks at receiver outside of Burks. The offensive line stays together for the most part and no incoming transfers lined up to start as of now. Some youth to watch out for on the left side in Howland and Ozeata but this line is definitely a solid unit that should be viewed as above average. If this offense is anything like Washington State's last year then expect fireworks from Arbuckle and this unit all fall.
Now the bread and butter for Coach Venables in the defense. This unit was great a year ago and the only reason they even won 6 games. They did lose some key players like Danny Stutsman and Billy Bowman but this program is about reloading not rebuilding. The key player returning is R Mason Thomas who had 9 sacks and 12 tackles for loss a yea ago. Opposite side of him they got a big time recruit that transferred from Georgia and Florida State in Marvin Jones Jr. He’s been finally looking for his time and this is the perfect opportunity for him to breakout.
The linebackers are where some retooling needs to take place, but they have guys to do it. Kip Lewis is the player returning the most experience and production out of the current crew. He’ll be in line to take a massive leap this year and get the rest of the linebackers ready to go. The secondary could be very good with a lot of the players getting a good amount of snaps last year and now getting ready for enhanced roles. This unit will be led by Robert Spears Jennings, who had 66 tackles, 4 FF, and 1 INT, showing he can do a little bit of everything for the team.
This coaching tree is very strong with Venables mainly operating the defense, along with having oversight of the team and then Arbuckle's manning the offense as a whole. Venables is a defensive guy from Clemson, and he’s always had that part of his team ready to go. It’s been the offense that has lagged behind in recent years. This year could look so much better with Mateer and Arbuckle running the show, looking like how Sooners’ offenses have looked in the past. A great hire this off-season as well was getting Jim Nagy to be their GM. He’s very well known in the college football community, running the Senior Bowl operations. Having his oversight of the team will be great for Venables to have that second set of eyes.
All in all, this team has great potential this year. The Sooners have a really tough schedule, having Michigan as a non-conference game and then finishing with 6 possible Top 25 teams to end their season. The sky is the limit, and once this team gets on a roll, watch out college football world.