The problem was that, just like in the regular season when Hawkins lost his job after a disastrous start against South Carolina, OU couldn’t keep up on offense. Quick outs were drops or inaccurate throws, running lanes were clogged and field goals were pipe dreams. It’s hard to beat this trio, but Brent Venables still had confidence in his offense to do it with that 2-point conversion attempt.

But enough of that.

Enough of this offense in Oklahoma. It was chaos. It almost felt disrespectful to the illustrious history of OU’s quarterbacks to show pictures of them after they returned from a commercial break. Players like Josh Heupel, Jason White, Sam Bradford, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray may have set a near-impossible standard, but this OU offense was just fighting an uphill battle for mediocrity. Aside from one night against Alabama, the Sooners’ offense has been a painful exercise to watch. Scoring 16.5 points/game against SEC teams (15th) and averaging 4.2 yards/game (16th) wasn’t what Venables envisioned in his first year in the conference.

Wait. I promised I would continue with the 2024 version of the OU offense.

Venables’ attempt to accomplish that in a crucial 2025 season was to hire 29-year-old OC Ben Arbuckle to lead his offense after Seth Littrell was fired following the aforementioned South Carolina disaster in October. Arbuckle was on the sidelines Friday as OU’s quarterbacks coach. It’s hard to imagine that what he saw from Hawkins after the first quarter will give him an edge over Washington State transfer QB John Mateer, who had the best QB rating of any FBS quarterback in November.

The good news for Oklahoma is that there is simply no way to repeat 2024 history in which all five top receivers are out by the end of September. Burks’ return for 2025 was huge, although he obviously needs to stay healthy to turn things around. And with the losses of pass catchers like Nic Anderson (LSU), Bauer Sharp (LSU), Jalil Farooq (Maryland) and Brenen Thompson (Mississippi State), Burks will find a whole new environment.

Shoot, Oklahoma just played in a bowl game that had an active player with at least 100 receiving yards on the season. It was true freshman Jacob Jordan who entered the day with 207 yards and 1 touchdown. He was one of four OU wide receivers to catch a pass Friday, all freshmen. Not ideal.

None of these offenses in Oklahoma were ideal. A unit that began the year confident that it would do just fine without Dillon Gabriel and Jeff Lebby morphed into a group that looked more like Oklahoma Baptist (which only plays because Oklahoma Baptist is on the floor) by the end of the season Division II finished 2-9 and failed to top 21 points in its last three games.

Venables’ time at Norman will depend on whether he can turn around this historically woeful OU offense. Period. It will be a distant memory that he signed an extension that was announced in June, a week before OU’s first day in the SEC. OU’s first season in the SEC was one to forget. Venables became the second OU coach in the last 100 years to have multiple losing seasons during his tenure. The last person to do this was the late John Blake, who preceded the Bob Stoops era.

Blake only got three seasons. Venables is fortunate to have a fourth year despite his 22-17 record. His recruiting efforts and defensive improvements played a big role in that, as did OU’s desire to win separation from Lincoln Riley. How fitting it was that both programs completed six to six regular seasons in their new conferences.

Friday’s result was fitting and frustratingly familiar for Venables. The only consolation he could take from watching that failed 2-point conversion attempt was obvious.

At least no one ever has to watch this OU offense again.

Connor O’Gara is Saturday Down South’s senior national columnist. He is a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life in B1G country, he moved south in 2015.