ARLINGTON — Over the course of a quarter-century as Oklahoma’s athletic director, Joe Castiglione hasn’t had much cause to apologize for the football program. The Big 12′s all-time scoreboard in football titles won or shared: Sooners 14, the rest of the league, 15. From 2015-20, Oklahoma owned the Big 12.
Until it didn’t.
Eighth place in the first year of the Brent Venables era.
First losing season since the end of the John Blake era.
How’s that going, Joe?
“We know they’re in it with us,” he said of Sooner fans, “even if there are some people that are . . . not used to experiencing something.
“We aren’t happy about it, either. So it’s new for some of us, too.”
Not every outgoing Big 12 member can say the same. Only “The Fast and Furious” has spawned more failed sequels than the “We’re back” franchise at Texas. Unlike the Longhorns, the Sooners never really went away. Unless you count Lincoln Riley, who beat it for the Left Coast. The only thing worse than Riley hitting the road was that Caleb Williams rode shotgun, becoming Riley’s third quarterback to win a Heisman in the process, only this time in cardinal and gold instead of crimson and cream.
Meanwhile, back in Norman, Venables didn’t exactly make anyone forget the guy who left them hanging. The Sooners got kicked around by TCU. Stomped by Texas. Gave up 40 or more points five times. Twice got half-a-hundred hung on them. In Sooner lore, that’s what they do to others. Or that’s how Barry Switzer became an OU legend, anyway. The defense wasn’t great under Riley, either, but defense is supposed to be Venables’ strong point, not so you could tell by the video game scores.
For the second year in a row at Big 12 media days at JerryWorld, Venables talked a good game. As monologues go, he may have no peer. Berry Tramel, the great Oklahoma columnist, clocked his opening remarks at his introductory press conference and found them longer than the Sermon on the Mount. Venables scaled back the rhetoric Thursday, coming in at a crisp five minutes. Even at that, it was still five minutes longer than Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, who cut to the chase as usual and managed to make headlines all the same.
Venables is such an agreeable sort that he smiles even when he doesn’t feel like it, which is a lot these days. Like when I asked him if it was hard for an old defensive coordinator to watch OU’s defense last year, and he showed off his grillwork.
Or at least I thought it was a smile.
Could have been a wince.
“I’ve always been the one that I see the bad even when it’s good,” he said. “And so when I say it’s hard, that’s what I’m talking about. You’ve got to take the bad with the good, and it’s really sour right now.
“It ain’t a lot of fun.”
Not if you’re a Sooner, it isn’t.
This isn’t OU, either: A football coach sitting in front of a microphone and saying that 97 of their 123 players are in their first or second year. Venables cited the Sooners’ need for “stability.” Cutting in half the 4.48 yards that opponents averaged rushing last year wouldn’t hurt, either.
All things considered, Venables’ debut didn’t inspire much confidence in his ability to turn it around as the Sooners are heading out the door. They came in third in the media’s projections behind Texas and Kansas State, but it wasn’t really that close. The Longhorns picked up 41 first-place votes to Oklahoma’s four. Now, you could say what does the media know, and you’d get no argument here. Picked TCU seventh last year, and the Horned Frogs made it all the way to the national championship game.
If I’m picking which school opposing fan bases would most like to send off on a bad note, Texas is the runaway winner. Oklahoma has never inflamed as much antipathy. Too many reasons to go into here, but there’s no love lost, either.
One sportswriter told Castiglione that, on their bell lap of the Big 12, the Sooners probably shouldn’t expect any parting gifts.
“Well,” Joe C. said, “at least nothing that we would want to take home with us.”
Helps in times like these to have a sense of humor. Now seems like a good time for Venables to turn things around, because it won’t get any easier in the SEC, and he could use a little momentum. Texas has a chance if Quinn Ewers makes good on those top 10 draft projections. Kansas State has 15 returning starters. Otherwise, the field seems wide open.
Castiglione made sure to say the Sooners’ goal is to be right back here at JerryWorld for the Big 12 title game, but he also called this a time of “transition.” He wasn’t talking about the moving vans, either. Time will tell how patient OU fans can be. They haven’t had much practice when it comes to the Sooners.
Neither has the media. Which is the only way I can explain Austin’s Kirk Bohls, dean of Texas sportswriters, asking Castiglione if any of his faith in Venables had been shaken a year into his hiring. Joe C. smiled and let it pass. For a guy who hasn’t had much experience with bad times, he’s pretty good at it.
Twitter: @KSherringtonDMN
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