Paul Finebaum mentions Oklahoma, Brent Venables as another potential opening in coaching carousel

The 2025 coaching carousel has been incredibly active, even before the end of the regular season. With that, there’s an expectation among many experts that this could continue to be a growing trend this cycle. In fact, ESPN pundit Paul Finebaum recently even suggested that another blue blood, Oklahoma, could be joining it by moving on from Brent Venables.

Finebaum was busy previewing Week 12 in the SEC on The Matt Barrie Show. There, he focused on Oklahoma, as the Sooners prepare to play Alabama, and suggested that the hot seat might be about to heat up for Venables if they lose that game.

“In the SEC, it’s pretty self-explanatory,” Paul Finebaum said. “Two of the biggest of the year, and I think that’s where my conversation will be this week. I’ll circle back to survival because Oklahoma had its worst loss of the year and its biggest win back-to-back. If they could roll into Tuscaloosa, that would really prevail — give them a shot at the Playoff and do a lot of good for Brent Venables, who’s kind of been living in and out of the hot seat for the last couple of years. Talk about another opening that could happen.”

Matt Barrie joked back to Paul Finebaum that he wasn’t going to “take the bait” and moved on. So, that kept Finebaum from adding to the thought. However, it is true that there has both been good and bad during Brent Venables’ Oklahoma tenure. That, in turn, has led to hot seat concerns at times.

Brent Venables came to Oklahoma in 2022. At the time, he inherited a team that had gone 11-2 the season prior and had double-digit win seasons in each of the last five seasons that weren’t shortened due to the pandemic. They had also gone to the College Football Playoff three times under previous head coach, Lincoln Riley. So, expectations are, naturally, high in Norman.

Of course, Venables got to Oklahoma when there were major changes in college athletics. That included the advent of NIL and the ability for players to transfer without sitting out a season. So, with those new challenges, Oklahoma stumbled in the Venables era, going 6-7 twice in his first two seasons there, though they did win double-digit games in his second year.

Now, sitting at 7-2 on the season, Oklahoma has a shot at the CFP. However, with a very difficult schedule remaining, things could also go sideways for the Sooners. That’s why Finebaum thinks the hot seat is on the table.

After a road trip to Alabama, Oklahoma will return to Norman to host Missouri. They’ll then finish the season at home against a talented but underperforming LSU team. So, if the season does get derailed, then the reaction around the program could be interesting to follow.