Greg McElroy 'really optimistic' about where Oklahoma is going under Brent Venables in Year 2

Last season was an undeniable disaster for Oklahoma considering the Sooners’ proud history. However, that won’t be the case for this season or the future in Norman according to Greg McElroy.

McElroy shared his optimism on OU’s future under Brent Venables during an episode of ‘Always College Football’ on Monday. Before he looks forward, though, he looked back at their 6-7 campaign in 2022 which has everyone as down on Oklahoma as they are.

“I don’t think any of us could have envisioned them slipping back to the first losing season since 1998. The first three-game losing streak since 1998. The first time without consecutive 10-win seasons since 1998, the worst shutout loss since 1945,” McElroy said. “We all know the low points, right? Oklahoma fans know the low points, they know the talking points, and it’s understandable. There’s a lot of reasons to be disappointed about how things went, especially when you take into account that you had 18 double-digit win seasons since 2000. That is pretty dang remarkable.”

Again, disastrous might be putting it lightly. After opening in the AP Top-10 and at 3-0 on the year, the Sooners lost seven of their final ten.

To be fair, while they lost four of their last five, all of them came by exactly three points. It’s still four losses but their play was far better than their performances from their three-game losing streak against Kansas State, TCU, and Texas, the Big 12’s three best teams a season ago, which featured an average margin of loss of 29 points.

With that behind them now, McElroy sees two main reasons for positivity. For one, he is high on Oklahoma’s 2023 recruits. Their class finished at No. 7 in On3’s Industry Ranking with 27 commitments in the cycle. For two, he believes that the program is finally getting past its history from Lincoln Riley’s tenure and moving on to the future.

“Here’s the positive: I am really optimistic about where he is going,” said McElroy. “Now, I can’t sit here and tell you, without a shadow of a doubt, that we’re going to look back at Oklahoma and say this is the recruiting class that flipped it, this is the recruiting class that made their presence known. But, man, I feel so much more optimistic today than I did even a year ago.”

“A year ago? It was like this is tough. They just lost such a great coach, they just lost their quarterback,” McElroy continued. “Now I’m really optimistic because I feel like they’ve gathered themselves.”

Reaching 10 wins as they have in all but five seasons since the turn of the century will be a tall task for them in a heavy conference this season. Still, regardless of how this upcoming fall turns out, McElroy sees the Sooners aiming in the right direction as a program from this moment on

“I know that Oklahoma Sooner fans don’t want to think that last year was rock bottom. I think it might have been. Now, the arrow is going to be pointing up for the foreseeable future.”