“Brent Venables is on the rocks with OU football after its second loss of the season.”

FORT WORTH, Texas – Surrounded by his players, Brent Venables walked off the field for the final time this season, the OU football coach’s face showing no emotion.

No frustration.

No anger.

Maybe that’s exactly what happens when your team caps off a great year with a great performance.

Navy 21, OU 20.

On a day when Venables and his Sooners had a chance to salvage a winning record from a muddled season, they failed instead. They gave up a two-touchdown lead. Too many passports lost. Missed too many defensive tasks. A first class opportunity missed.

The result: another lost season.

More:Navy coach Brian Newberry rejoices in bowl win over OU with former Westmoore coaches and teammates

Venables said on the eve of the Armed Forces Bowl that he hadn’t thought about how important winning the game was when it came to having a winning season versus a losing season.

But on Friday he acknowledged that the entire season was unacceptable.

“Just disappointed,” Venables said. “Of course everything falls on me. If we lose the ball or don’t convert on fourth down, if we miss field goals or miss out on explosive runs, everything falls at my feet.

“So really disappointed in myself.”

He lowered his head.

“I need to get a lot better. I think that goes without saying.”

Venables seems all too aware that he’s on thin ice, joining a small group of Sooner head coaches that no one wants to be a part of. He is now one of only three head coaches in Sooner football history to have more than one losing season.

The other two: Bennie Owen and John Blake.

Owen, of course, is a Sooner coach royal. OU’s field is named after the man who coached 17 seasons of early Sooner football. Yes, he had three straight losing seasons from 1922 to 1924, but those were different days.

Plus, he had a decade of Sooner success before he had these problems.

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Blake, on the other hand, is the OU head coach no one wants to be compared to. At least not when it comes to success. He coached the Sooners for three seasons and never once had a winning record.

It got him fired.

His successor, Bob Stoops, never had a losing season.

The same goes for Stoops’ replacement, Lincoln Riley.

But with Venables at the helm, OU has now recorded two losses in three years.

No chance he’ll ever do what Blake did, which was two consecutive record losses. Because if Venables doesn’t have a winning record next season, he’ll be gone. There is no way Joe Castiglione and the rest of the Sooner staff will allow this to continue past next season.

Had the Sooners won on Friday and finished with a winning record, it wouldn’t have guaranteed Venables more than another season. OU needs to make a big turnaround next year, and that’s the expectation with new offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and highly-paid transfer quarterback John Mateer.

If the Sooners don’t win more than they lose next season, the Venables might not survive, no matter what happened Friday.

But another losing record doesn’t reflect well on him.

“You don’t get to 6-7 and have done all those things right,” Venables said. “Just needs to get a lot better.”

He believes the Sooners will be.

“We have a lot of experience with returning,” he said. “We had a lot of guys this year that had a chance because the guys weren’t available.”

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Injuries forced numerous players out of action, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. Numerous receivers and offensive linemen enjoyed seasons that would never have existed if everyone had stayed healthy.

Ultimately, the offensive line seemed to take advantage of this – they improved significantly in the second half of the season – but the receivers still look suspect. On Friday, they dropped at least seven passes. Even though Ivan Carreon and Jacob Jordan look safe, you can’t rely on two pass catchers next season.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” admitted Venables.

He praised the players’ fight and commitment, work and sacrifice. Also the trainers and supervisors.

But he recognizes that the bottom line is the bottom line.

So the lack of emotion Venables showed as he left the field after the game was not an indication of how he felt. He feels the weight on his shoulders. He sees the anvil above his head.

“This is a performance game,” he said. “This is a game about doing.

“And we clearly missed that this year.”

The Sooners did it, and the losing record is theirs. But the name associated with it is that of Venables.

More:OU football collapses against Navy in Armed Forces Bowl loss after hot start | 5 snack bars

Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or [email protected]. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoma journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

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