As the leader of a college football program with a storied history, Brent Venables does something most other Oklahoma head coaches haven’t done: lose.

The Sooners ended their 2024 season with a 21-20 loss to Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl on Friday in Forth Worth, Texas. The loss leaves OU at 6-7 this season, giving the Sooners their second losing record in three years.

As The Oklahoman’s Ryan Aber pointed out in an article leading up to the bowl game, Venables was one of only two coaches in OU history to have more than one losing season during his tenure leading the program.

In Venables’ first season as a head coach of any kind in 2022, OU posted a 6-7 record, again thanks to a narrow loss in a mediocre bowl game after a disappointing regular season. However, the Sooners rebounded with a 10-3 season last year and restored confidence in the signing of Brent Venables.

But this season, the Sooners again went 6-7 in their first game in the SEC. The campaign included a winless October and the midseason firing of offensive coordinator Seth Littrell before ending with another loss in an even lower bowl game in a Big 12 stadium.

The only other coach to suffer multiple losses at OU was John Blake. A coach wants to be compared to Bob, Barry and Bud at Oklahoma, not Blake. Blake was responsible for the worst three-year stretch in OU history.

Blake never led the Sooners to a winning record in three seasons. He was fired after the third in 1998 and replaced by Bob Stoops in 1999.

After Stoops took over and eventually turned the program over to Lincoln Riley, the Sooners never lost more than they won in a season. Until Venables’ first year, then again in his third.

Blake did not survive the third lost season. And neither will Venables, no matter how much has changed in college football or at OU. Regardless of conference, NIL funding or transfers, expectations will never change in Oklahoma.

Venables can either continue what the Sooners are used to, like Bob and Barry and Bud and even Lincoln, or he will forever be compared to John Blake and not coach at OU after 2025.