Oklahoma board of regents chairman Rick Nagel took an unusual step on Wednesday to address hot seat talk surrounding head coach Brent Venables to state that, actually, Venables's chair is room temperature.
"The board doesn’t typically comment much on what’s going on in the athletic department. That’s maybe a smart thing. But I want to say this … our head coach, Brent Venables, is not on the hot seat," Nagel said, via The Oklahoman's Joe Mussatto. "There is no hot seat. We just extended his contract."
Indeed, Oklahoma did.
Venables was extended in August, and details of said extension were not revealed until October. As the Sooners suffered losses to Michigan and Georgia, the void was filled by speculation that perhaps the board had gotten cold feet. After OU momentarily turned its season around by upsetting then-No. 1 Texas, suddenly the financials were available.
Pre-extension Oklahoma would have owed Venables $26.2 million to move on; post-extension, the number is now $51.7 million.
"There is no hot seat," Nagel continued. "We just extended his contract."
— Joe Mussatto (@joe_mussatto) November 11, 2026
Oklahoma fired offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle last Monday and then responded by winning over then-No. 24 Florida in the Swamp.
Encouraging as that is and for the prospects of interim offensive coordinator Jason Witten landing the full-time job, the win simply continued the pattern Oklahoma has followed all season: win, loss, win, loss, and so on. With games against No. 19 Ole Miss (4:15 p.m. ET, SEC Network), Texas A&M and at No. 22 Missouri to close the year, 8-4 is firmly on the table for the Sooners. And 6-6 is also on the table.
Winning two more games would break another pattern five years into Venables's tenure. In even-numbered years, Oklahoma has gone 6-7; in odd-numbered years, the Sooners went 10-3.
Either way, Venables will get a Year 6 in Norman.