This is an opinion column.
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Oklahoma coach Brent Venables says he turned down a job opportunity from Auburn a few years ago.
Just in case anyone needs a refresher, he offered an odd story for the snub.
Venables, at the time an assistant coach at Clemson, was tucking his daughter into bed one night when the child asked her father why he didn’t accept an offer to coach the Auburn Tigers in December of 2020.
As kids do, right?
Venables told the story to a group of Oklahoma supporters after he was named coach of the Sooners back in 2021.
So the story goes, Venables explained to his daughter that he was scared for her. His implication was that coaching at Auburn was too risky of an investment for his family.
Here’s burning question No.4 of my offseason series about college football and the upcoming season of change. Should Venables be scared for his daughter’s future now that Oklahoma is in the SEC?
The long buildup is finally over. Oklahoma and Texas officially joined the SEC at midnight on July 1. The age of the college football super conference is here, for good or ill.
Is OU ready for the SEC? There are doubts, and not just from former coach Lincoln Riley.
10 BURNING QUESTION
Question 1: Will Isaiah Bond regret leaving Alabama for Texas?
Question 2: What does Nick Saban really think about Alabama?
Question 3: Where is the hottest seat in college football?
Texas and Oklahoma shocked the college football world in the summer of 2021 when the rumors first began circulating at SEC Media Days. It seemed ridiculous at the time, and, if I’m being completely honest, I’m still not completely thrilled with the massive changes taking place across the college football landscape.
Texas seems ready for its jump to the toughest league in sports. But Oklahoma? I’m wondering if OU is ready for the shock to the system its football team is about to experience by moving from the Big 12 to the preeminent super conference in college football.
My guess is that Oklahoma is in danger of getting left behind.
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Comparing the programs since their moves to the SEC became official, it’s easy enough to see that Oklahoma has fallen off the pace of its Red River rival. Start with the coaches.
A decade ago, Texas coveted football coach Nick Saban. Saban thought about leaving Alabama for Austin, but then he remembered one important detail. Alabama was the king of the SEC, and that’s the conference where all the best recruits want to showcase their talents.
After getting snubbed by Saban, Texas hatched a plan to join the SEC.
Texas fired former Longhorns coach Tom Herman on Saturday, Jan.2, 2021, and announced the hiring of Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian on the very same day. I’ll always be convinced that Texas was preparing to leave the Big 12 many months ahead of when the news first leaked that Texas and OU were in talks with the league.
And while Texas looks like a national title contender once again going into the 2024 season, Oklahoma is still playing catch up.
Never mind the Longhorns, the Sooners might not be better than rival Missouri.
Oklahoma won 85 percent of its games under former coach Lincoln Riley. Why would he leave all that for USC? He didn’t want any part of the SEC. One season after we learned that OU was moving to the SEC, Riley loaded up the covered wagon and bolted for Southern Cal.
Oklahoma fans are still intensely bitter about Riley’s departure. I can’t blame him for skipping town. It’s nothing against Norman, which is lovely and of course has better brisket. It’s just easier to recruit in Los Angeles.
USC is now one of four West Coast teams in the Big Ten — UCLA, Washington and Oregon are the others — and Oklahoma feels like an SEC tagalong.
Oklahoma was the preeminent power of the Big 12. The Sooners had everything. Most years, they even made it look easy. Now? Oklahoma is getting lost among the giants of the SEC, and I’m suddenly getting strong Nebraska vibes.
Oklahoma is not in the Southeast, and it doesn’t have the cachet of Texas. That’s not a great combination.
Can Venables out recruit LSU and Alabama? No. Can he out coach Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss? We’ll see. Oklahoma plays all three of those schools this season in addition to rivals Texas and Missouri and Tennessee, too.
Is Venables on the hot seat going into his first season in the SEC? Let’s just say that his britches are certainly getting warm. And after everything Venables said about Auburn, his pants will be on fire if the Sooners can’t even beat the Tigers.
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Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the most controversial sports book ever written, “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”