Don't count out the Oklahoma Sooners from the 2025 College Football Playoff equation just yet.
There is a slight chance of Brent Venables, the hot-seat head coach who everybody's writing off, pulling off the biggest surprise of the 2025 college football season.
Venables has seemingly done everything right, from bringing in the "most influential" transfer portal QB to bringing in an OC who goes perfectly with him.
The only thing left to do is tackle a tough schedule and put up a decent enough score to make a case for a CFP spot, if not more -- at least according to On3's Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman.
"People have left Oklahoma and Brent Venables for dead. They stunk last year, so there’s no question they’ll stink again, right? Wrong. The problem is that Oklahoma has the toughest schedule in college football this year. It’s tough enough, though, where 9-3 actually could get the Sooners into the CFP," Wasserman argued about the Sooners actually having a shot at CFP.
"Oklahoma brought in the single most influential transfer in the 2025 portal cycle in quarterback John Mateer, along with Washington State offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle. The Sooners also added California running back Jadyn Ott into the mix. If the offensive line is improved and Venables cooks up a good defense like he always does? Look out."
Add head coach Venables handling the defensive play-calling duties himself to that, and the defense has hope as good as the offense.
Either way, Venables needs to find a way for the Sooners to have an impressive season with a winning record and get off the hot seat list.
Suppose he can make it a college football playoff run instead, even better. It will keep him away from the hot seat talks for at least a couple of years.
All of that said, the Sooners will need to beat the top bluebloods nationally like Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee, Ole Miss, and LSU. Among these, they can afford to lose only a couple, or a maximum of three, to have a redemption season.
As hypothetical as it sounds, it might still be doable for the Sooners. The real deal would be in seeing how Venables makes it doable.