Josh Pate grades the job Brent Venables is doing at OU

Yahoo Sports2h ago20 min readOriginal source →

TL;DR

Brent Venables, head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners, received a job approval rating of 'B' from Josh Pate after leading the team to ten wins and a College Football Playoff berth in 2025. Venables aims to build on this success in the upcoming 2026 season.

Key points

Brent Venables is in his fifth season as head coach at OU.
He led the team to ten wins and a College Football Playoff berth in 2025.
Josh Pate rated Venables' job performance as 'B'.
Venables had previous records of 6-7 in 2022 and 2024.
High expectations are set for the 2026 season.

Mentioned in this story

Brent Venables

Josh PateOklahoma Sooners

Josh Pate grades the job Brent Venables is doing at OU

Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables is entering his fifth season at the helm in Norman, and he's coming off of his best year yet, leading OU to ten wins and a berth in the College Football Playoff in 2025. With high expectations looming in 2026, Venables has the chance to further establish himself this fall.

Josh Pate, the host of "Josh Pate's College Football Show", gave out a job approval rating for Venables on his show, along with a few other SEC head coaches. Pate was complimentary of the job Venables did in 2025, after he went 6-7 in 2022, 10-3 in 2023, and 6-7 in 2024.

"Obviously, they made the College Football Playoff last year," Pate said. "That's awesome. I think that gets Brent Venables a 'B'. I leaned 'B+', somewhere between 'B' and 'B+'. That's where I am. That's where I think Oklahoma fans are on Brent Venables."

While Pate is sold on Venables' ability to build a defense, there's another major component that wasn't there for the Sooners last year that OU has put a focus on this offseason.

"Where was the run game is the question," Pate said. "You would think there are two things you could take for granted when you hire Brent Venables. One of them, it turns out, you can. Defense is going to be good. Normally, right there along with that, arm in-arm with a good defense, is normally a good solid dependable ground game, at least. Doesn't have to be top 10, but man, they were outside the top 115 or 110 last year, 113th exactly in rush yards per game last year. Abysmal. And as a result, they couldn't control games ... Yes, defense has gone from being non-existent there under Lincoln (Riley) to being a strength, and that's great, and that's a welcome return of one of the bedrock pillars of the identity of Oklahoma Football over the years. Now, can they put a string of seasons together? Last year's a good start, very good start. Ten-win season's great. Can you win nine or 10 again this year? Does it have to dip back down? Doesn't have to."