Brent Venables' Oklahoma "running extremely hot" after acing spring time, says JD PicKell

As the Oklahoma Sooners progress through their offseason, Brent Venables has already overseen several changes. From updates to the roster to staff hires, the program has been making “boss moves,” as On3 analyst JD PicKell put it.

"Oklahoma is running hot right now, man," PicKell said on Friday, via 'Hard Count.' "Oklahoma’s running extremely hot. … You talk about Oklahoma, since the season ended, it’s been boss after boss move after boss move.”

Some of the moves that PicKell talked about were the Sooners hiring Ben Arbuckle as their new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in December. Arbuckle came from Washington State, and his offense ranked sixth in points scored per game last season with 36.6.

He brought with him John Mateer, who threw for 3,139 yards and 29 touchdowns, completing 64.9% of his passes. Mateer is a dual-threat athlete and also ran for 826 yards and 15 scores, ranking sixth among QBs.

Additionally, the team hired former Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy as general manager and landed California running back Jadyn Ott, who was ranked the No. 3 RB available in the transfer portal.

PicKell summed up the Sooners’ spring.

“Oklahoma made it very clear, ‘We’re not settling here when it comes to our standard," PicKell said. " … This is the standard, it’s at championship level. So, we’re going to align our actions with our goals and make championship boss kind of moves to get to where we want to go in 2025.”

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Brent Venables on importance of retaining players

While Brent Venables has brought in several new chess pieces to the board, he also emphasized the importance of holding onto players during his press conference over the weekend.

“I think retention is the most important part of the whole puzzle," Venables said. “You want to develop a locker room that has continuity, consistency, stability. That’s healthy to be successful. And if you look at our roster and the numbers that we’ve signed — each year its gone down. And that’s ideally what you want.”

Venables assumed control of Oklahoma’s defense after Zac Alley left. With new mentorship on both sides of the ball, the Sooners are seeing a shift, one they’ll debut at home against Illinois on Aug. 30.