Bill Haisten: Oklahoma's Offensive Issues Point Straight to Brent Venables

Bill Haisten did not dance around it. On this week’s episode of The Jones Report, the Tulsa World columnist looked at Oklahoma’s season and put the offensive stagnation right at the top of the program’s biggest problems.

The Sooners are 4-3 and 2-2 in the SEC heading into Saturday’s homecoming game against South Carolina, and that record already feels thinner than fans wanted by late October.

Some of that is the schedule. A lot of it is self-inflicted.

Oklahoma is averaging just 21.6 points per game, which ranks 100th in the FBS. The turnover margin sits at minus-1.1 per game, good for 129th nationally. John Mateer has been in the middle of too much of that mess, accounting for nine turnovers through seven games with seven interceptions and two fumbles. The run game has not helped much either, at 3.1 yards per carry and 105.6 rushing yards per game.

Those numbers are ugly enough on their own. What made Haisten’s appearance notable was where he assigned the responsibility. He did not just blame the quarterback or shrug at the offensive line. He pointed at Brent Venables.

“There’s only one person on the planet who can alter or change or order anything in Norman and that’s Brent Venables,” Haisten told Tyler Jones.

“For whatever reason, Brent has put his fingerprints on what the plan was offensively. Is it an attempt to shorten games and try to run clock, and try to gain an edge week after week on possession time?”

That is a fair question when you watch the way Oklahoma’s offense has looked in stretches this year. Ben Arbuckle was brought in to bring some juice and structure to the operation. Bill Bedenbaugh has long been one of the more respected line coaches in the sport. And yet the finished product still feels constrained, inconsistent, and nowhere near explosive enough for a fan base raised on football that actually moved the scoreboard. Haisten’s point was that coordinators do not suddenly lose their identity in a vacuum.

“There’s only one person who could bring in a coordinator from a specific system somewhere and it worked, and bring him to Norman, and it doesn’t look the same, and it certainly doesn’t click in the same way,” Haisten said.

That lands because it matches what a lot of people have been watching.

Mateer’s best football has shown up in flashes, especially in the Mississippi State win. The surrounding pieces are not empty either. Isaiah Sategna can still take over a drive. Rocky Beers has been one of the better tight end producers in the league. The defense has been good enough to keep Oklahoma in almost every game.

The problem is that the offense keeps forcing the defense to live on a tightrope. When the Sooners protect the ball, they can beat quality teams. When they do not, the whole operation starts leaning sideways.

Haisten then zoomed out to the bigger program question, and he did not soften that part either. Venables is 36-23 through five seasons in Norman with one College Football Playoff appearance. He also has the contract security that comes with an extension and revised buyout language. Haisten still asked whether the actual standard is being met.

“Brent is going into his sixth year (2027). Gary Gibbs was the head football coach at Oklahoma for six years, and I just wonder even with the contract revision, extension, revision on the buyout, all that Tyler, is it good enough?” Haisten said.

“I mean really, what’s the standard now? They’re not winning enough. They’re not scoring enough. They’re not scoring with the frequency that generations of Oklahoma fans have grown accustomed to.”

That Gibbs comparison will get people heated, and it should. It is not a talent insult as much as a temperature check. Oklahoma fans can live with tough schedules and defensive identity. What they do not live with comfortably is a team that feels stuck between being competitive and being incomplete.

One playoff appearance is not nothing. It is also not enough to quiet the broader concern if the offense stays this stalled and the wins stay this hard to string together.

That is what makes Saturday more interesting than a normal homecoming date. Oklahoma has not won back-to-back games all season. South Carolina is coming in off ranked wins and still presents problems, especially with LaNorris Sellers at quarterback. But the Gamecocks are also giving up 28.0 points per game, ranking 86th nationally. If there is a week for Mateer and the offense to look less constrained, this is one of the better opportunities left on the home schedule.

Whether that happens may say as much about the offensive identity as it does about one opponent. Haisten’s argument was not complicated. The defense has given Oklahoma a floor. The offense has not given it a ceiling. And in his view, the only person with the power to change that dynamic is the head coach.

You can hear the full conversation with Haisten and Jones on the latest edition of The Jones Report, available now on Apple, Spotify, and all major podcast platforms.