Brent Venables: Joe Castiglione has been 'great vessel of support' for Oklahoma this season

Brent Venables still has support from Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione in spite of the team’s struggles this season. The Sooners are just 4-4 in their first year in the SEC and have struggled immensely on offense, firing offensive coordinator Seth Littrell.

Venables is in his third season as the OU coach with a 20-14 overall record, but appears to be trending toward his second losing season. Asked in his Tuesday press conference whether he still felt supported by the Sooners AD, he didn’t hesitate.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Venables answered. “He’s got good perspective. He knows things. There’s a great alignment from a perspective standpoint of what we’re dealing with. So that’s the extent of conversations. He’s kind of living and dying in the moment of the season like a coach would, but showing a great vessel of support.”

OU started off 3-0 in nonconference play but has since gone just 1-4 in its SEC games. That includes three straight losses as they most recently fell 26-14 against Ole Miss on Saturday.

The Sooners thankfully have a brief pause in SEC play as they play Maine this weekend. Assuming they win that one as they should, they would need just one more win over their final three games to reach bowl eligibility.

OU has not failed to make a bowl game since the 1998 season, which was the last in the infamous three-year tenure of coach John Blake. It is set to close the year with games against Missouri, Alabama and LSU and has shown nothing to inspire confidence it can beat any of those teams.

Even if the Sooners do manage a victory to become eligible, the expectations are far higher than that at a program like Oklahoma. Venables will have to show more if he hopes to remain the coach, but at least for now still has Castiglione on his side.