I think it is fair to say that Brent Venables' offensive coordinator hire for the 2025 season will be the most important one of his career. If he nails it, his job is safe for the foreseeable future given Oklahoma's impressive recruiting and the turnaround of the defense in his third year. 

Despite what people at some will write about Oklahoma feeling "directionless", this Oklahoma team has plenty of positive momentum outside of the offense. They've built three straight top-ten recruiting classes and are currently sitting 11th in 2025, aiming to add to that tally. 

Five coaches the Oklahoma Sooners should pursue to replace OC Seth Littrell in 2025

It's time for the Oklahoma Sooners to fire offensive coordinator Seth Littrell. It's clearly not working and after another embarrassing outing by the offense, changes have to be made.  Fortunately, I've been working on an offensive coordinator list for several weeks now. Let's look on the optimistic side here and build a future for Sooners […]

The defense has taken immense strides, moving away from the joke they were for the last decade. This isn't the floundering program that was treading water under Lincoln Riley, who was able to mask deficiencies in his process with a Heisman quarterback. 

Yet, the results haven't been there this season, namely because of a disastrous offense. Venables aimed to keep continuity for quarterback Jackson Arnold after Jeff Lebby left to take the Mississippi State job when he promoted Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley to be co-OCs this season, a move that backfired. 
While the team exorcised the last of its demons of the Lincoln Riley era on the offensive line, the wide receiver got decimated by injuries, the tight end transfers evaluated by Finley flunked out, and their young quarterbacks simply weren't given a good environment. 

Now, Venables has to get this hire right in his second year in the SEC. Oklahoma is set to return plenty of its star talent on both sides of the ball next year, something nearly every other program in the SEC won't have the luxury. 

What are three things he needs to do to nail this hire?

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#1: Avoid the Oklahoma circle

Listen, Oklahoma has had plenty of excellent coaches in Norman throughout its history. The next offensive coordinator should not be one of those former coaches. Whether it's a former player or former coach, hiring based off of Oklahoma pedigree is how the Sooners ended up in this mess with Littrell and Finley in the first place. 

That's not to say every Oklahoma hire has been a disaster. Running backs DeMarco Murray has put a few guys into the NFL and has recruited plenty of talented backs to Norman. Safeties coach Brandon Hall has an awesome track record of development and recruiting as well. 

The Sooners under Venables have had a few strong hires from outside the Oklahoma bubble that have arguably been their best position coaches in wide receivers coach Emmett Jones and cornerbacks coach Jay Valai. Even offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh, who is one of the best in the country (if not the best), was outside of the Sooners' alumni database. 

I don't mind Venables hiring from within his circle. That's how the Sooners ended up with talented coaches like Zac Alley and Todd Bates. Assuming he doesn't hire Chad Morris or Jeff Scott, it's not a bad idea to lean into his circle and network. I just think this process should become about who is the best offensive coordinator for this team period and not who is the best former Sooner to run the offense. 

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#2: Don't be scared of the buzzwords

Brent Venables has talked about wanting the offense to be more complementary to the defense, which can turn a bit old-fashioned if he leans too far into it. The Sooners' offense next year should be focusing on scoring to complement the defense. If Venables is serious about hiring some of the best offensive coordinators in the country, he's going to hear words like tempo, pace, explosives. Don't be frightened off of those. Don't just hire the first coach who is going to say we're going to run the ball well. 

Venables hired Jeff Lebby to be his first coordinator, so it's safe to say he isn't entirely ignorant of the effectiveness of these offenses. Still, he soured on Lebby's offense for its poor clock management, something he might have over-corrected on when he hired Littrell. 

Now, he has to aim for a coach who is going to bring back the explosives to the Sooners' offense and make the offense an effective unit again. 

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#3: Find someone who will complement the staff and players

This might read like a Captain Obvious point, but you'd be surprised how little common sense tends to play out in these searches. 

I think the Sooners have too many talented position coaches on offense to let a new offensive coordinator bring in his staff. While that might seem a little dysfunctional, the Sooners were a top-ten offense a year ago with almost all of their staff being Lincoln Riley holdovers. Emmett Jones, Bill Bedenbaugh, and DeMarco Murray are talented developers and have staunch recruiting classes behind them. 

I also think this new coordinator must be a coach who is willing to tweak his system to fit the players. Again, you'd think that would be common sense, but there's not a more stubborn group of people than coaches. The Sooners' current offense is doing a pretty poor job of playing to their players' strengths at every position. 

His system should also be quarterback-friendly to appeal to one of Jackson Arnold or Michael Hawkins or potentially a portal quarterback if the Sooners lose both in the offseason. I think their best bet is still to keep Arnold and build around him, but who knows what this offseason will bring. 

Quarterbacks will always want to play for Oklahoma, it comes with being a blue-blood program. Yet, if the Sooners want to bring in the best, both in the portal and in recruiting, this should be an offense that is going to be quarterback-friendly with built-in answers and pedigree in passing the ball.