The 2025 season will be a do-or-die type of a season for HC Brent Venables who has compiled a 22-17 record and a 0-3 bowl record in his three seasons in Norman. Of those, only the 2023 season was a successful one with a 10-3 record and a 15th AP Poll ranking. As of now, it is his quarterback room that he needs to build again after Jackson Arnold, Brent’s primary QB last year moved to Auburn, whom he replaced with the then-freshman Michael Hawkins Jr.

But then entered John Mateer in December and looks like the HC is all set to make him the primary play caller as he comes in with a shining record of 3,406 yards, 32 TDs, and a 65.3% pass completion percentage. Still, Venables has cemented Mateer to 45 spring camp practices that go until the season opener with the QB’s aim to “Getting those live reps is important.” And as he prepares for his side of the work, he might have to more breakout stars to rely on chosen by Michael Bratton and Steven Lassan.

In a video from earlier this week of That SEC Football Podcast, Lassan first named his pick. “I’ve got Eli Bowen at cornerback. So, he started with 8 straight games to start last season. Stat sheet impact: one interception, four pass breakups, 30 tackles; not a huge impact. But, I think if you look at his advanced metrics, he was targeted 39 times, gave up only 21 catches and limited receivers to just 72 yards after the catch.

“So he’s done a nice job of not giving up a lot and then making sure they’ didn’t translate into big plays as a freshman last year. So, I think you can see where this is going. A corner, who played right away, the lights weren’t too bright. Year two, under Brent Venables, I think he can step up and be one of the top corners in the SEC, so give me Eli Bowen for Oklahoma.”

Eli Bowen made Sophomore All-American in 2021 and has impressive athletic records from high school. On the field, he has great leg power, which translates into his potential as a cornerback as well. Bratton, on the other hand, wanted to pick Mateer but eventually made his final non-QB choice.

“I’m not picking quarterbacks. How about this one? This might be cheating a little bit. We saw him in limited duties and I thought– he lives up to the hype and then he unfortunately got injured. They desperately need weapons to emerge if John Mateer is going to do anything. Give me Deion Burks. May seem like a no-brainer.

“But only had 245 yards last year and 3 touchdowns but that was largely due to injury. What limited viewings we got of him last year, I was very impressed. I thought he lived up to the hype. Again, very limited. But, if he can be healthy, I think he could be potentially All-SEC caliber.”

Burks is a Purdue transfer and was once a highly praised WR entering the portal. “If you go back to the start of last season, he was one of the top receivers in the country. And certainly, one of the top receivers available in the portal.” Now in full health and with a great OC who he already knows and new quarterback in place, Bratton thinks Burks would bring in some real damage.

Brent Venables is going full steam ahead at Oklahoma’s spring camp. He will step into the upcoming season after struggling in 2024 with a 6-7 record. He has no time to waste and is ensuring the same for his team. However, there are some other achievements that Venables thought were worthy of acknowledging.

Brent Venables has big news about the team’s academics

We don’t talk a lot about what college football players do outside of football. Venables, however, made sure the Sooners are excelling on the academic front as well. He told Josh Pate, “We just had our 5th straight record-setting semester academically, [with] over 3.0 team GPA,” the HC announced.

“When we started, we were closer to a 2.0 than we were a 3.0-—embarrassingly speaking. But we’ve changed the mindset and the goal [by] just having great habits.” Venables also pulled the team’s leg, saying, “After football, there’s a plane that’s, you know, going to crash to some degree.”

Venables hoped that the academics would help his players do something in life since they were already making big money with NILs. “They might [get] a Day 3 opportunity in the NFL at best. Then, after that, it’s 3 years max. Now what? So we have a process set up here.” Not only is he training the boys to be good on the field. Venables is also hoping that his players will have the requisites to make it big in life.

No one is working at the capacity of Sooners’ HC at the moment. He has a new defensive coordinator and a new quarterback on board. Venables can also look to prepping Eli Bowen and Deion Burks as a solid support system for Mateer to excel. All in all, it seems that HC is truly making sure he earns every dime of the salary for which he was hired. Maybe 2025 will turn out to be a better year for him and the team.