We have just around a month to go before the lights go green for the 2025 season. When that happens, it would also mark the beginning of the most crucial tests of some head coaches. It’s going to be a year that either grants them one more year or shows them the door. Not so surprisingly, SEC coaches feature at the top of the list of most at-risk HCs. And among them, equally unsurprisingly, is Brent Venables. Competing in the most difficult conference is a mammoth challenge on its own. When your job is on the line while navigating that environment, it gets a little tricky.
Ahead of the 2023 season, Venables faced very little heat. He finished his first season as HC with 6-7, ending the Sooners’ brilliant run in the Big 12. But he saved his job that year after going back up to 10-3. It even earned him a contract extension, and fans must’ve thought he would soon mirror Lincoln Riley’s glorious arc. Then the 2024 season happened, wreaking absolute chaos in Norman. Venables’ squad acted as if only a thin string was holding the players together. The offense was a nightmare for him and the players involved. It rattled Jackson Arnold so much that he thought leaving was a better option.
“He’s had three years now. This will be his fourth year. There’s no sanctions there,” Josh Pate said in a July 6 episode of his show. This being year 4 and coming off a horrific season makes for a brutal pill for Venables. And it’s not just him. Venables joins 3 other SEC coaches who will be walking a tightrope this year. Hugh Freeze, Billy Napier, and Sam Pittman are the other crew members of this boat. The Arkansas coach is in Year 6, which makes his position the most threatened in the SEC.
The ‘first college football coach fired’ odds have been released for the 2025 season. pic.twitter.com/7DZq8cjMca
— Blake Munroe (@BlakeMunroeOTF) July 23, 2025
It’s year 3 for Freeze, 4 for Napier, and 6 for Pittman—yep, that’s got to be a reason for worry. Billy Napier is yet to recreate the successes from his Louisiana stint, where he also won two Sun Belt championships. In Florida, for the past three years, his best is 8-5, after already being on the hot seat in the 2024 season. Unfortunately, he’s undone a lot of the work done by Urban Meyer and Steven Spurrier. The main reason for his 2024 season’s survival was DJ Lagway, who thankfully will become his saving grace this season as well. But this might be the end of the road for Napier if he fails.
Freeze, on the other hand, will be on extremely strict watch. Like Napier, Freeze’s 6-7 and 5-7 finishes have dented Auburn’s glorious past. Gus Malzahn had a $21.45 million buyout when he was fired. Freeze, however, can be let go of easily, whose buyout is set at just $17 million. Malzahn’s worst record is 6-5. The math gets pretty easy for Freeze. For Pittman, the situation gets even more dangerous. His contract extension mandates that if his record (from 2021) dips to .500, his buyout would become 50% of what he owed. If Arkansas showed him the door in December last year, he would be paid just a little over $12 million. Pittman was already in the “win or be fired” category of coaches ahead of the 2024 season.
It is going to be a cutthroat battle for some of these coaches, who will also meet each other in their schedules. Oklahoma will play Auburn in their already difficult schedule. It will be a crucial game for both Hugh Freeze and Venables, who are going to make this a must-win for themselves. And ironically, this will be homecoming in a way for Jackson Arnold. 2025 will not be to get the playoffs or a double-digit win—it’s a quest for survival.
At the end of the season, Brent Venables would just want to hold on to his job. An 8- or 9-win finish will do that job, considering how brutal his schedule is. What’s more important is how much Venables has learned from the past three seasons to ensure 2025 is not a failure. He has attacked the offseason more ruthlessly than any other SEC coach, canceling the spring game and around 40 practices lined up before the season begins. He’s got some new and promising elements in his squad. If he fails even after making these changes, it won’t look good on his resume.
A retooled Oklahoma has to work for Brent Venables to keep his job
Venables’ first personnel change happened mid-season. Seth Littrell was given the boot, and Ben Arbuckle came in from Washington. But the damage was already done. Arnold and QB Micah Hawkins Jr. couldn’t quite click with the new OC. With Arbuckle came John Mateer, who is ranked at a respectable No. 5 in USA Today’s QB rankings. The HC himself is taking charge of the defense play-calling. He has everything he needs to make it through this season at best, if not to revive this blueblood program.
“They’ve recruited good athletes there. And they’re going to be good defensively. They’ve elevated every year since he’s been there. I got little doubt about that,” Pate said, still having hope for Venables’ future. “I don’t think anyone is saying playoff or bust. But they better be noticeably improved this year; I think they will be, but they better be. They’re on the clock for that,” the analyst added. For Brent Venables, the hope is for him to keep his job. He has a 10-3 record in the bag, and he can repeat a production like that in the future. That year, Venables took over defensive play-calling, just like this year.
2025 is going to be a through-and-through test for Brent Venables. It’s a program he knows like the back of his hand. But this is the year that determines his future at Norman, especially whether he gets to see another one as the coach of the Sooners. As do Hugh Freeze, Sam Pittman, and Billy Napier.
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