Brent Venables pulls the curtain back on what next Oklahoma offensive coordinator should run
Oklahoma's offense has had their worst year in a decade this season, though they have rebounded towards the end of the year. They fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell midseason and are still in the middle of their search (do not believe anyone who has reported anything as a done deal). They have plenty of candidates […]
Oklahoma's offense has had their worst year in a decade this season, though they have rebounded towards the end of the year.
They fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell midseason and are still in the middle of their search (do not believe anyone who has reported anything as a done deal). They have plenty of candidates to sort through for this list, though we can take a guess at the top candidates.
In his press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Brent Venables revealed what kind of offense he wants out of the next offensive coordinator to call plays in Norman.
Some of this is generic coach speak, but the overall quote has a couple of good points in it.
I think the idea of not having the system be built around having an elite quarterback is a smart one. While this could be a shot at former head coach Lincoln Riley (whose offense has fallen apart without that kind of quarterback play), it's simply smart football.
You want your system to be able to produce efficient passing regardless of who is under center in case of injury or in case of a sudden portal departure. While it would certainly be nice to have an elite quarterback in a system, it's more important for the system to be plug-and-play there.
Venables also said "The end result [of the Alabama game] was what you wanted it to look like. You can do that in a lot of different ways. You can throw the ball efficiently and run when you need to; we ran the ball efficiently and threw when we needed to, but we stayed on schedule."
I took this quote to mean that the offense doesn't have to be a "run the ball and control the clock" style of offense. The next offense doesn't have to be good at one thing over another stylistically, it just has to be efficient.
TL;DR: Brent Venables doesn't prescribe to any specific ideology on offense or care if it's run-first or pass-first as long as it is efficient, can stay on schedule, and can score enough points to take the pressure off of the defense.
Hopefully, their next hire can find that balance, as Oklahoma's defense is an elite unit.
