Post-Texas, One Big Thing for Oklahoma is Also One Ugly and All Too Familiar Thing

Oklahoma has been here before. Too many times.

Brace yourselves, Sooner Nation.

Post-Texas, OU’s record is just 9-12 under Brent Venables. Prior to playing the Longhorns, Venables’ teams are 17-3.

The second half of the season has arrived.

The No. 14-ranked Sooners head to South Carolina this week as a 5 1/2-point favorite. Maybe the OU defense is back to its unrelenting self. Maybe quarterback John Mateer has both his eyes and his thumb (and his practice reps) right this week.

But history tells us this is when things get hard for Venables’ teams.

It doesn’t matter the metric over the previous three seasons, the record is not good:

In true road games, Venables is 6-8.
Away from Norman, his teams are 7-13.
In one-score games, the Sooners under BV are 5-9.
In conference games, OU is 12-14 with Venables as head coach.
And after the second Saturday in October, blue blood Oklahoma is winning less than 43 percent of its games, again, just 9-12.

At least OU has a winning record (2-1) in the game immediately following the Red River Rivalry. The Sooners own a 10-point win over Kansas, a 2-point win over Central Florida, and a 25-point loss — to South Carolina last year in Norman after returning home from Dallas.

This year, USC is 3-3. Despite losing a lot of NFL talent off that defense, Shane Beamer does have some similarities in this South Carolina squad.

The Gamecocks have a big, fast, talented quarterback in LaNorris Sellers, a defensive front that hunts QBs like they’re on safari, a defensive back who has more touchdowns on punt returns (3) than any OU running back or receiver has rushing or receiving, a defense that leads the SEC with 12 takeaways and a hungry fan base lying in wait for the Sooners’ first-ever visit to Columbia.

“They've got an NCAA leading six non-offensive touchdowns,” Venables said.

READ MORE OU-SOUTH CAROLINA COVERAGE

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How to Contain South Carolina QB LaNorris Sellers
Oklahoma WR No Longer With the Program
How OU's Offense Matches Up With SC's Defensive Front
Oklahoma RB Trending in Wrong Direction for South Carolina

Meanwhile, OU’s punt unit just gave up a 75-yard punt return to Texas and ranks 129th out of 134 teams in turnover margin (minus-1.5 per game) and is next-to-last in the nation with just two takeaways.

“We need to play really efficient,” Venables said. “We gotta take care of the football. We gotta get better. We gotta play more efficiently offensively and for four quarters. Defensively, we can’t have any lapses. We gotta force turnovers. That’s been a staple of who we are for decades, and for whatever reason they’re just not coming like we need them to come this year.”

So there’s the Oklahoma checklist. Get all that done, and the plane ride home will be a joyous one. But fail to run the football again, fail to get takeaways again, give the ball away to the opponent again, and the Sooners can use the morose return flight to do some soul searching.

Because south of the Red River, on the Forty Acres in Austin, Steve Sarkisian continues to build a much different vibe.

While Venables is 9-12 after playing Texas (with losses to Baylor, West Virginia, Texas Tech, Kansas, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Missouri and Navy, among others), Sarkisian’s teams are 18-7 after playing OU (with a Big 12 championship, an SEC runner-up, two College Football Playoff appearances, including a deep run last year, and all seven losses against top-12 teams and five in the top 6).

Up next, each of Oklahoma’s final five opponents are currently ranked in the top 16 of the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

It’s time for Venables to turn the corner and start winning these games — conference games, road games, games outside of Norman and close games.