Brent Venables Explains Decision to Shake Up Oklahoma's Offensive Coaching Staff

Brent Venables spoke solemnly about the decision to fire offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle on his Monday night coaches show.

“Ben, as I said, he’s been fantastic. I know we’re not where we want to be offensively and obviously that’s why we made a change, but he was great,” Venables said on Sooner Sports Talk on 107.7 The Franchise. “He’s a strong leader. Really smart. Tough. He helped build a culture. He’s a fantastic teammate. … Not an easy day.”

Venables finally pulled the plug on the Arbuckle experience after the Sooners’ embarrassing 42-25 loss to South Carolina.

OU’s offense has floundered since the season opener against UTEP, but the bottom finally fell out when Arbuckle’s unit totaled 118 yards of offense through the first three quarters against the Gamecocks.

“This is not a flippant decision,” Venables said. “Wanted to be very patient, which I have been, and at the end of the day the end product wasn’t what it needed to be and what it’s expected to be and what it deserved to be.

“It needs to be a lot better. There’s historical data that you look at that you’re patiently waiting for things to change in a little more dramatic fashion than what it was.”

After eight games, the Sooners sit at 4-4 overall and 2-3 in SEC play.

The offense is tied for 108th in scoring offense and ranks 111th in total offense, 128th in rushing offense and 66th in passing offense.

Venables now turns to first-year tight ends coach and future NFL Hall of Famer Jason Witten to turn things around.

“I feel that this is a football team that still is talented,” Venables said. “These guys have put in a tremendous amount of work as a staff. It’s not necessarily an indictment of Ben as much as it is the end product isn’t what it needed to be. … It wasn’t any one thing. It was a whole lot of it.”

There weren’t many experienced offensive coordinators on staff for Venables to choose from.

Kevin Wilson could have stepped in, but Venables said he ultimately felt Witten was the right guy to lead the offense into the final month of the season.

“You certainly look at the room,” Venables said. “Who is most capable to do so? He has a tremendous trust and great relationships with both the players and the staff. I think that’s important… If you want buy-in under these circumstances, having trust and belief, real genuine relationships is really important.”

Still, it will be a group effort to get OU’s offense across the finish line.

“All of it will be a collaboration,” he said. “There’s a system that’s in place that you have to choose from, build from. You can’t just come up with something out of thin air in the circumstances. So I thought he was the most capable and ready and able to be able to lead our guys in this role.”

Venables then ran through all the clichés that his team has plenty to play for and that all they can do is try to go 4-0 from here, but he said the team handled the change of coordinator in a “professional” manner as they try and turn the ship around in November.

“I thought we had good juice and energy. Not an easy day,” he said. “… Felt that a new perspective, a change in the leadership, can potentially give us that opportunity to (improve).”

The Sooners will be back in action this weekend against Florida (6:45 p.m., SEC Network).

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