Paul Finebaum takes victory lap on Oklahoma fans ahead of Red River Rivalry vs. Texas

Few teams have watched their teams crash and burn over the last two weeks as hard as Oklahoma fans have. And ESPN personality Paul Finebaum didn’t mince words when discussing the Sooners’ 2022 season going up in flames.

Oklahoma went from No. 6 in the country to unranked, losing to Kansas State at home before getting smoked 55-24 by TCU on the road this weekend.

“It was a weekend that I’m sure where you sat there was as much angst as you could find, but in the end there was only one true loser in college football in my mind yesterday, and that was Brent Venables,” Finebaum said on ESPN’s College Football YouTube channel.

And it’s not just that Oklahoma has lost its last two games. It’s how the Sooners have lost them.

Oklahoma surrendered 668 yards to TCU on Saturday, allowing 361 yards on the ground and 307 yards passing. That came just one week after Kansas State ran all over Oklahoma, piling up 275 yards on the ground as the Sooners simply couldn’t figure out how to slow down dual-threat quarterback Adrian Martinez, who ran for four touchdowns in the 41-34 upset.

Finebaum saw enough this Saturday that he was openly questioning Venables and the faith many Sooners fans expressed in him this offseason.

“I don’t know how you could look any worse,” Finebaum said. “All these Oklahoma fans who blew me up and blew you up about how much better they were going to be without Lincoln Riley, it may take all the oil in Oklahoma to wipe that off your face.”

Not much on the line in Red River Rivalry

Though Texas only has one Big 12 loss so far this season, both Oklahoma and Texas will enter this weekend’s Red River Rivalry with relatively little to play for.

Certainly the usual stakes — Big 12 title contention, possible playoff hopes on the line — don’t seem to be in play.

Finebaum continued on about Venables, discussing the situation with ESPN’s Matt Barrie.

“Listen, I’ve always wondered about Venables,” Finebaum said. “He took an awful long time to become a head coach, and good for him, he’s cashing in and gets to experience everything that a first-year head coach does. Yeah, his defensive coordinator selection was curious. Let’s forget that. It was terrible.”

Ted Roof, the coordinator Venables hired to run Oklahoma’s defense, is at his sixth school in the last six years. He was a defensive assistant at Clemson in 2021, Vanderbilt’s defensive coordinator in 2020, Appalachian State’s defensive coordinator in 2019, NC State’s co-defensive coordinator in 2018 and Georgia Tech’s defensive coordinator from 2013-17.

He’s moved around quite a bit.

Oklahoma current ranks 65th nationally in passing defense (124.5 yards per game), 67th in scoring defense (25.2 points per game), 109th in total defense (423.0 yards per game) and 119th in rushing defense (198.2 yards per game).

Texas enters Saturday’s game as a 6.5-point favorite, according to consensus lines from VegasInsider.com.

“I mean what an opportunity for (Steve Sarkisian) to win that game now in Dallas, that even fewer people care about that game than the Alabama-Texas A&M game,” Finebaum finished.