Brent Venables is 1-9 vs Top 25 teams. That's pitiful. Actually, pathetic.
I'm finished with this shit. Here's my take on the state of the program and I'll just watch and see if Joe C has the cajones to get OU back on the right track.
First, Barry Switzer was leery of joining the SEC. Here is what he told the Tulsa World. "I’m concerned. I want someone to raise their hand in a few years and say, ‘I’m the one who took us to the SEC. I don’t know who made the decision, how it was made or who was involved". Barry knows OU football better than anyone alive. He could see this coming. Hell, even I could finally figure out what was likely to happen and have posted my opinion for at least two years.
Second, OU football has a $100 Million problem. Yeah, no kidding. That's what it would take to get OU in a position to be at the top of the SEC. But Goldbug!!! $100 Million?! Yup. By the time we dumped Venables, his shitty staff, paid out all the settlements, hired a new PROVEN HC and paid what it would take to hire PROVEN coaches as coordinators and position coaches and then ponied up the NIL money it would take to buy the players we need, it's nearly $100 Million. Do the math yourself if you don't believe it.
Third, OU's mentality is still stuck in the Big XII while we are playing in the SEC. The emphasis is still on facilities, facilities, facilities with a piker's approach to raising the $$$ to hire the right mercenaries and coaches for getting to the top. Barry Switzer also said about a month ago "I don't know how we can compete with Texas anymore. We're in a small state with 3.5 Million people and Texas has 35 Million people. That a big difference in where you get money". Barry can obviously see that money has trumped every other advantage OU used to have in college football.
Fourth, while OU has spent a fortune on facilities, our coaches are still not top notch with the exception of the sports that are doing great: softball, gymnastics and golf. Yes, if you don't have the right coaches it's not going to be reasonable to expect great results. Again, that comes back to item #3, money.
I doubt the average OU fan is that concerned about winning a NC in basketball, or baseball or tennis or a lot of sports. What counts the most is football. Is Joe C willing to spend all the money necessary (if he can find it) even at the expense of other sports and his penchant for upgrading faculties in order to fund a football resurrection? Truthfully, I doubt it will happen. OU is having a hell of a time still trying to raise $2 Billion for the endowment. They have been trying for years and Joe Harroz (OU Prez) sends out regular appeals to donors. The well is running dry at Oklahoma and that's not even taking into consideration what's likely to happen with the national economy starting next year.
I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer. And whether anyone believes it or not, I've got a LOT of experience doing turnarounds and workouts with troubled companies. I'm one of the best there is and I see many of the same issues in OU sports that I've seen in a wide range of businesses. An outdated business model, fractured pricing structures, a bloated bureaucracy, underachieving executives, poor sales, liquidity problems and a tendency by the older managers to resist needed changes. The two most important issues are always upgrading senior and line management (coaches) and increasing the operating capital for OPEX (coaching salaries, NIL, etc.). If you can't at least do those two things it's not going to turn around or get appreciably better.
Don't be surprised if Joe C gets behind a push to introduce Private Equity $$$ into college sports. Then you would see schools like OU with a lot of money coming in through a a debt-like cost of capital structure — without any fixed payments — with its returns tied to new revenue generation. Private Equity would monetize the F out of everything and share in the increased revenues as its return on investment. Billions would be washing back and forth in college sports. And you wouldn't recognize it as anything we've always loved about college sports.
