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Oklahoma football has a new leader with Joe Castiglione retiring

On3 imageby: Ian Boyd07/07/25Ian_A_Boyd
Syndication: The Oklahoman
OU athletic director Joe Castiglione and new football head coach Brent Venables clap during Venables' introduction on Dec. 6 in Norman. cover main

An ongoing coup for the leadership position over Oklahoma football advanced a little further today with the news that longtime athletic director Joe Castiglione will be retiring soon and “Executive Advisor” (i.e. shadow athletic director) Randall Stephenson will be selecting his replacement.

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You may know Stephenson as the guy who was ousted from AT&T after a criticized run as its CEO, or as the guy to whom new general manager Jim Nagy reports to rather than Brent Venables.

Stephenson clearly has the regents behind him and will soon have hand-picked people in the GM office, the AD office, and guess what’s next?

In the past, the Oklahoma football coach was the most powerful man on campus and both the AD and president worked to help him maximize the potential of the program. Venables squandered any chance of that with two losing seasons out of his first three, including a pair of Red River no shows and a loss in the final Bedlam matchup with Oklahoma State. Evidently Castiglione’s failure to see Lincoln Riley’s departure coming, adjust quickly to the new NIL era, or nail the replacement cost him the confidence of the powers that be as well.

Years of successful management and support of Bob Stoops and Riley didn’t prepare him for this eventuality nor was Venables equipped to do so. Now Stephenson has filled the power vacuum.

An interesting future now lies before us. Stephenson clearly believes in himself as the guy who can guide Oklahoma football into the new era and Nagy is his right arm in executing that process. Does he believe in Venables? Clearly not. Would he rather have his own guy there? Surely yes.

Will that go down well with the old guard Oklahoma people and Stoops? Questionable. Does that matter? So far it has not.

Will it go down well with a prospective new head coach to be answering to Stephenson and working alongside his handpicked instrument Nagy? Also questionable. Will that matter? Oh yes it will. When the day comes where a Stephenson-backed coach takes over, he will fully own the results on the field.

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It should be fun to watch unfold.

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