Brent Venables explains decision to fire Seth Litrell amid 'embarrassing' offensive output

After a string of bad offensive performances, Brent Venables finally made a change at offensive coordinator. Seth Litrell is no longer with Oklahoma, being fired after just seven games. Joe Jon Finley will take over as the Sooners play caller, hoping to provide a spark moving forward.

While Venables admits not all of the problems are due to Litrell, he knows something had to change. He did not have faith in the situation getting better moving forward. Oklahoma’s schedule only gets harder from here and making a switch is what Venables believes to be best.

“Obviously, we haven’t played winning football on offense,” Venables said. “…You look at the results and if you continue to keep doing what you’re doing, you probably aren’t going to win… Everything doesn’t fall at the feet of Coach Littrell… I had to ultimately do what was best.”

Rock bottom certainly was in the first quarter against South Carolina on Saturday. Before some fans in Norman got settled into their seats, there were three turnovers — two of which were returned for touchdowns. Oklahoma was down 21-0 with 9:40 remaining in the first quarter and for all intents and purposes, the game was over.

The struggles go further back than that but Venables described them as “embarrassing” on a historical level.

Just three points were scored against Texas. Michael Hawkins produced two moments of magic against Auburn but still struggled. And then in the SEC opener against Tennessee, Venables decided to bench Jackson Arnold. Even the nonconference slate against easy opponents produced frustratingly bad football from the Sooners.

No matter who has played, at any of the 11 offensive positions, results have been bad. The head coach’s next move to potentially get something going is inserting Finley as the playcaller.

“It’s completely unacceptable and embarrassing,” Venables said. “Why are we historically not where we’re supposed to be? Maybe it provides a spark. There will be real change. There’s got to be accountability.”