Ben Arbuckle Has to Go After Oklahoma's Offense Hits Rock Bottom

NORMAN, Okla. - I’ve seen enough. Ben Arbuckle has to go.

That is not a heat-of-the-moment reaction to one ugly homecoming night. It is the accumulation of an entire season that has looked stuck, constrained, and nowhere near good enough for Oklahoma.

South Carolina just dropped 42 points in Norman, outgained the Sooners 521-359, and left Owen Field hearing “Fire Arbuckle” chants before halftime.

If that does not force a change in approach, what will?

Yes, Brent Venables’ fingerprints on the offense are part of the problem. That has been obvious for a while. The operation has never fully looked like the up-tempo attack Arbuckle ran with John Mateer at Washington State, and it would be dishonest to pretend the head coach has no role in that.

But both things can be true at once.

Venables may be limiting the offense, and the current offensive coordinator setup still is not working. At some point, the result is the only thing that matters. This offense does not look meaningfully better than it did in Week 1 against UTEP. There is no evidence a corner is coming.

That is why Oklahoma needs to make a change now and see what it actually has inside the building. Give Kevin Wilson or somebody else on staff a real look the rest of the way. Maybe the product does not improve. Maybe the same issues remain. But the Sooners at least have to find out whether any version of this offense is salvageable with a different voice calling it. Keeping the same structure after another home loss like this is just choosing comfort over urgency.

Mateer played poorly again, and that is very relevant in this conversation. He finished 26 of 43 for 244 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions, but the offense still never consistently threatened South Carolina.

The run game was stuck. Tory Blaylock had 32 yards. Too many possessions felt dead on arrival. The indictment on the offensive staff is that as uneven as Mateer has been, the program still acts like it would get worse if it turned to Whitt Newbauer or Bowe Bentley.

If the next-man-up options are not prepared enough to even be part of the conversation, that is a coaching failure too.

The strangest part of Saturday is that Oklahoma won the turnover battle 3-0 and still got drilled. In most games this season, that formula kept the Sooners alive. Against South Carolina, it did not matter because the offense could not match explosives and the defense eventually broke under Sellers’ big plays.

When you win the turnover battle at home and still lose by 17, the operation is broken in more than one place.

Venables did not address potential staff changes after the game, and that silence stood out. In the past he has been quick to shut down that kind of talk. This time he did not. Maybe that means nothing. Maybe it means even he knows the ground has shifted. Either way, the standard is not being met.

Not everything is on Arbuckle. The line has been banged up. The run game has underperformed. Mateer has left points out there. Venables has clearly had influence over the identity of the thing. But coordinators still get judged by the finished product, and Oklahoma’s finished product is 21-point averages, negative turnover margins for most of the year, and a home crowd hunting for somebody to blame by the second quarter.

Arbuckle may still become a successful play-caller somewhere else. This version, in this setup, with these limitations, is not working in Norman.

A clean break is best for everyone. Oklahoma needs a jolt. The players need a different voice. The fans need some sign that the program is not just going to ride out the same stagnant offense for the rest of the year and hope the defense keeps saving it.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. The Sooners are there now.

Move on from Arbuckle and at least test whether any solution still exists inside the building.