Paul Finebaum believes Brent Venables was a 'terrible hire' for Oklahoma

Brent Venables might be in only his first season at Oklahoma, but Paul Finebaum is already sounding the alarm on his head coaching capabilities. The ESPN analyst joined the network Sunday to recap the weekend of college football, where the Sooners’ loss to West Virginia came up.

With that game, OU dropped to 5-5 on the season, a major step back from where it has typically finished in the past 20-plus seasons. That led Finebaum to explain that he believes Venables was a “terrible hire,” saying that the Sooners have become “irrelevant” this season.

“That’s a sign that your program has become irrelevant when I’m not sure I did know (their record),” Finebaum said. “It went on the ticker last and I looked at it like, ‘Oh, Brent Venables has lost another game at Oklahoma.’ So what? I’ve been critical of him and I’m going to continue to be critical of him. I think in the end, this was a terrible hire.

“They were so fraught with contempt for Lincoln Riley and that’s all they wanted to do. ‘Hey, Lincoln Riley’s not man enough to be in the SEC. He ran off to (USC).’ It was a pretty smart move, Lincoln, taking Caleb with you. And what is Oklahoma now? They’re just another program that quickly and karma’s pretty tough.”

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Finebaum’s reaction seems to be a bit over the top, and it’s worth noting that Bob Stoops finished 7-5 in his inaugural season in 1999 before winning a national title the next year. Venables was on that staff with Stoops, and still has a good relationship with him to this day that should help him going forward.

That said, it’s also undeniable that the Sooners have taken a huge step back this season. Many players transferred when Riley left for USC, leaving Venables to fill in the holes quickly. Now the OU offense, which in previous seasons lit up league opponents, ranks just seventh in the Big 12 with 31.9 points per game and fifth in yards per play (6.1).

Paul Finebaum believes if Oklahoma continues to next season, it could come calling to Josh Heupel at Tennessee as a potential replacement for Brent Venables. Heupel was the quarterback for OU’s last national championship team in 2000 and was the Sooners quarterbacks coach from 2006-14.

However, his firing after those nine seasons by Stoops, his former coach, raises the question of whether he’d even want to return.

“Heupel was on the staff there and things weren’t going well and they got rid of him,” Finebaum said. “It wasn’t just, ‘We wish you well, Josh.’ It was a bad divorce. I don’t know whether Heupel’s been back (to Norman). There’s a strain and I’m not suggesting Heupel’s looking for anything. I mean, the guy’s on top of the world right now.

“But I’m sure, and they can deny it all they want, but I’m sure there’s some fat cat boys in Okie City right now going, ‘Maybe we could try to ameliorate that relationship and see how old Josh is doing. Maybe in the offseason have a round of golf with him in Knoxville to tell him how much us Sooner boys love him.’ That’s not a story for today, but Oklahoma, with one more season in my mind before they come to the SEC, do you want to bring Brent Venables into the SEC if that program is limping out in Norman? That’s a big story to watch.”

Ultimately, time will tell whether Venables is able to turn things around at Oklahoma. He’ll hope to finish this year out strong beginning Saturday in the annual Bedlam matchup against Oklahoma State.