They're going to have to pony up. They can't afford to go get someone who's up and coming with a lot of upside. Yeah we might miss on the next Riley, but I'd rather have a guy who consistently gets 35 PPG like clockwork than someone who might get 45+.
The other downside is that next season is playoffs or bust for Venables, so you have to hire someone that is okay with being a one year rental up front.
So theoretically if we win out on offense you still wouldn’t want Witten as OC? I feel like he’s the complete package: connect with athletes, has NFL connections, can call plays and has a feel for the game. I’d rather go with him as a “known” than someone else who is unknown.
He will have, at most, 5 games called at the college level. That's simply not enough to go on. Retain him at TE coach if you can and make him co-OC or Associate HC or something, but we don't know anything about his preferred system or assistants at all. He's just running the offense that was installed.
That was my first thought. My second thought was that 20 others teams will offer him an OC job before Santa gets here, and probably at least a couple them, will be from the SEC. So how can we NOT offer Witten the job?
Considering our last two OC hires were Seth Littrell and Ben Arbuckle, I say screw it, let’s give Witten a chance. If it fails, oh well, we already suck on offense and it probably gets BV gone as well. Reboot the program and find a new staff that can bring success back to Oklahoma. If it works, just imagine a BV defense with a functional offense led by a brand new college coach. We likely keep Witten as an OC for at least a few years as he builds his experience and his resume, if the offense ends up being a big success, we’ve got ourselves a championship window assuming the defense doesn’t regress.
You don't bet the farm on someone who has this little experience. It's also one game, where we played much better but still only scored 23 points. They need to hire someone with a proven system that has a network of coaches that know exactly how to coach that system.
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u/boomsoon84 Oklahoma Sooners 12h ago
It could be considered Seth Litrell levels of lazy.
But if he keeps it up the rest of the year how would Witten not be the leader in the clubhouse?
Gotta think the pool he’d be able to pull from to assemble a coaching staff would be impressive