Oklahoma's SEC debut was a flop. The Sooners believe it was just a blip

New York Times

6 hours ago

The final play took five seconds. And nothing went right after the snap to quarterback Michael Hawkins.
He retreated and scanned the end zone. The Navy defense held against Oklahoma's wide receivers, a group decimated by injuries weeks before. Hawkins stepped forward in the pocket. His protection collapsed.
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The last sack did not count statistically among the FBS-leading 50 that the Sooners allowed in 2024. But this failure, on a two-point conversion attempt as Oklahoma trailed 21-20 with six seconds to play in the Armed Forces Bowl, ended OU's season with a losing record.
A series of crushing events — summarily depicted on the final play — hit the Sooners last season.
'It was just a perfect storm,' ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy said.
Oklahoma beat Auburn and Alabama but finished 6-7, the second losing season at the school in 26 years. The other sub-.500 finish came in 2022, coach Brent Venables' first season. He enters Year 4 with a 22-17 record and new coordinators on offense and defense.
Amid a move to the unforgiving SEC with an offensive system in flux, coaching turnover, looming administrative change and two losing seasons in three years, has Oklahoma lost its edge?
Despite Oklahoma's four College Football Playoff appearances and the fifth-highest win total in the sport since 2010, a case exists to argue it could slip toward a fate that befell its once equally powerful Big 12 rival, Nebraska.
Nebraska tumbled as a result of mismanagement and shifting times on both sides of a move from the Big 12 to the Big Ten. A culture of change and poor decisions caused it to lose much of its identity. The Huskers' winning season last year marked their first since 2016.
Oklahoma remains steadfast in representing the brand of football that built its reputation as a giant.
'Oklahoma is going to be great,' athletic director Joe Castiglione said on the cusp of his 28th and final season in charge. 'We're not getting caught up in any hyperbole. We don't need to. Everybody else (talks). We are responding to questions, of course. We'll give you straightforward answers, explain what's going on.
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'We're living it every day. We know we're in a league with so many great teams. But that's exactly where we want to be and what we signed up for — and we couldn't be more proud to be a member of the SEC.'
Venables won 10 games in 2023, his second season and the Sooners' last in the Big 12. Oklahoma rose to as high as No. 6 in the AP poll, but it lost consecutive games at Kansas and Oklahoma State to derail CFP hopes.
Last year, Jackson Arnold, the former five-star QB who transferred to Auburn in December before the postseason loss against Navy, struggled to achieve consistency. The offensive line started eight lineups before the second week of November.
The Sooners, in the first year of a move to the SEC, scored 13.5 points per game in six league losses.
'We aren't excuse makers,' Castiglione said. 'Things happen. OK? They happen. That's it. Now we've got to respond appropriately to get better.'
They've responded resoundingly, Castiglione said. OU doubled down on its commitment to athletes, according to the AD, by fostering creativity in its fundraising and promotional efforts around NIL. It hired Jim Nagy, former director of the Senior Bowl, as the general manager for football, and surrounded him with a robust staff.
And Venables made personnel moves to address recent woes.
The coach fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell last October after a third loss in four SEC games. His permanent replacement, 29-year-old Ben Arbuckle, came from Washington State after the season. Arbuckle coached No. 1 NFL Draft pick Cam Ward in 2023 and helped turn John Mateer into the top available QB in the transfer portal last December. Mateer followed Arbuckle to OU, along with standout running back Jaydn Ott from Cal, and reinforcements on the O-line led by Western Carolina transfer Derek Simmons.
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'Making those hard, tough decisions at a tough time, we showed that we were willing to do that,' Venables told reporters in Norman this month. 'And that's what the players deserve. But I'm really excited about this football team. And that's where the energy and focus has been.'
The Sooners' group of incoming transfers ranked 12th nationally this year, according to 247Sports, on the heels of recruiting classes from 2022 to 2024 under Venables that rated eighth, sixth and eighth, respectively.
'I understand we're in a performance business,' Castiglione said, 'and we have to go out on the field of play to prove ourselves. But I feel really confident in the moves that we've made, and I'm excited for the season ahead.'
The roster is better than a year ago, Venables said. The preseason consensus among pundits suggests Oklahoma does not look like a program moving in the wrong direction. The Sooners were ranked 18th in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 on Monday.
'Guys are remembering what happened last year,' defensive lineman Gracen Halton said, 'and showing up to put in the work.'
A harsh schedule in 2024 left little room for error in the Sooners' adjustment to the SEC. They lost against Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Missouri and LSU, all of which won nine games or more. Only LSU on that list did not finish among the top 20 in the last CFP rankings.
The schedule this year does not soften. Oklahoma hosts Michigan in Week 2. In SEC play, it faces Auburn, Ole Miss, Missouri and LSU at home, Texas in Dallas, and South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama on the road.
'We're probably looking at (Oklahoma) through a lens that is a little unfair with how we judge them,' McElroy said.
Mateer threw for 3,139 yards and 29 touchdowns last year. Ott in 2023 rushed for 1,305 and 12 touchdowns. Deion Burks, the only returning receiver among five at the top of the depth chart last year to sustain injuries, projects as a top Mateer target in the new Air Raid scheme.
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Arbuckle said he watched the O-line come together in the offseason more than any other position group.
'It made me excited as a coordinator,' he said. 'It made me want to work harder for them.'
No matter the reassurances internally that Oklahoma has not veered off track, the foundation shifted underneath the Sooners in the summer of 2021 when school leaders said yes, alongside Texas, to the SEC invite.
Four months later, Lincoln Riley left after five seasons to take over at USC. Former five-star quarterback Caleb Williams, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2022, also followed the coach out of Oklahoma.
'Whether or not you want to acknowledge that, it's crazy to think that someone would leave Oklahoma for another head-coaching job in college football,' McElroy said. 'That was shocking.'
On top of the sudden coaching departure, the Sooners' move to the SEC compounded a difficult transition.
'You may not feel it on the surface,' said Adi Kunalic, co-founder of Opendorse, a technology company that specializes in the NIL industry, 'but it is happening.'
Kunalic kicked for Nebraska from 2007 to 2010, its final years in the Big 12. The Huskers' move to the Big Ten in 2011 redefined their identity — for fans of the program and the people working and playing inside of it.
'Very likely, Oklahoma is experiencing some of that,' he said. 'Because the way you recruit and what you tell people, it changes.'
The Sooners' recruiting footprint has largely stayed intact, though, in contrast to its old foe. Nebraska was forced to rethink roster building, geographically and as it related to style of play.
Even before the league change, Nebraska lost its footing in a cycle of moves that included the firing of five head coaches and the untimely departures of four athletic directors over two decades. The Huskers' dramatic shift two decades ago away from an option-based offensive style erased an advantage that it held over nearly all of college football.
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Aside from Riley's departure, Oklahoma has endured little such recent trauma.
Castiglione, the AD since 1998, announced last month that he would step down during the 2025-26 academic year. He's staying two additional years in an emeritus role to ease the transition. Randall Stephenson, the former chairman of AT&T and executive adviser to the president and AD, is leading the search for Castiglione's successor.
Undeniably, his move comes during a treacherous time as Oklahoma further navigates the SEC while college sports plunges ahead into revenue sharing.
Is it more difficult today than eight years ago to sustain a dominant program in college football? Ask Riley, 26-14 entering his fourth season at USC. He took over at Oklahoma for the retiring Bob Stoops in 2017 and won four Big 12 titles in five years.
'In some way, yes,' Riley said last month at Big Ten media days. 'In some ways, no. It depends where you're at.'
Where is Oklahoma in comparison to its place two or three years ago?
'They're no longer at a disadvantage,' McElroy said, 'because they're aligned with the league that is most synonymous with sending kids to the NFL.'
Indicators in 2025 show that OU, on the rebound from a rare dip, is situated favorably.
'I know a lot of people like to look at one year as the sample size and extrapolate that,' Castiglione said. 'But I can promise you we are setting up our program to be in the position that the best teams are — playing for a conference championship, getting into the College Football Playoff and playing for a national championship.
'That's OU's DNA. And that will never change.'
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