Steve Curtis | November 3rd, 2026
Jason Witten has four games to help Oklahoma produce the dependable offense it has spent the past two seasons searching for.
Brent Venables named the first-year tight ends coach the Sooners’ interim offensive coordinator following the dismissal of Ben Arbuckle Monday, putting Witten in charge of an offense whose promising stretches have rarely produced lasting progress.
For Venables, the decision started with who could get the players and staff to believe they could still accomplish something together.
“He has tremendous trust and great relationships with both the players and the staff,” Venables said on his Monday night coaches’ show. “I think that’s important from a leadership — if you want buy-in under these circumstances.”
Those circumstances leave Witten with little time to establish himself.
Oklahoma is 4-4 following Saturday’s 42-25 loss to South Carolina. An offense Arbuckle was hired to repair has remained the program’s greatest limitation, leaving the Sooners changing coordinators during the season for the second time in three years.
Witten now inherits the responsibility of getting more from the same players and system.
Venables made clear that the change doesn’t give Oklahoma an opportunity to rebuild its offense from scratch.
“There’s a system that’s in place that you have to choose from, build from,” Venables said. “You can’t just come up with something out of thin air in these circumstances.”
That makes the immediate task more specific.
Witten must identify what Oklahoma can execute consistently, organize the offense around it and give the players a plan they can carry through an entire game.
The Sooners have shown enough to suggest there is something to work with. John Mateer protected the football in the win over Texas and delivered his most efficient Oklahoma performance against Mississippi State.
But those performances have not become a standard the offense can depend on.
Witten was already involved in the effort to change that. He helped implement the expanded use of tight ends during the offseason, part of Oklahoma’s push to develop a more physical and dependable running game.
Now, his responsibility extends to the entire offense.
Venables said the work would remain collaborative. But he believed Witten was best positioned to lead it, citing the relationships that could help keep the group together through another disruptive change.
Witten’s response reinforced that belief.
“Jason was incredibly eager and confident in the opportunity,” Venables said.
Enthusiasm alone will not resolve Oklahoma’s protection problems, inconsistent execution or possessions that end without enough points. Witten still has to turn the confidence surrounding his appointment into something the Sooners can use on Saturdays.
Venables sees the change as an opportunity to give Oklahoma something it has lacked as the season has slipped away.
“This is an opportunity to ignite the football team the last four weeks of the season,” Venables said. “I’m excited for that.”
But his decision required more than his own belief that Witten could provide it. He needed Witten to understand the responsibility and embrace what Oklahoma was asking him to do.
“I don’t make that decision if he doesn’t have a shared excitement and vision and deep understanding of what’s in front of him,” Venables said. “He’s got tremendous leadership and courage; ready to attack it.”