Brent Venables is on a tightrope walk for the whole of the 2025 season. After the nightmare of last season, the HC is on high alert to keep anything like that from happening this year. Chief among them will be to be on the lookout for his new QB1, after Jackson Arnold suffered at Norman. Venables opened up about that tough split, as Arnold’s dad revealed what really affected the QB.
Jackson Arnold was a 5-star QB and was one of the best in the 2023 recruiting cycle. He ended up having the worst possible start for a true freshman. Last year’s tough handling of the season ultimately forced the QB to move out, and he is now at Auburn. “Obviously, things worked out well for him and us both,” coach Brent Venables told the press recently. “Those are things that are never easy, but it’s just the environment that we’re in, and I’m really happy for him that he’s having a great success.”
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His father and coach revealed the dark reality that Arnold dealt with last year at Oklahoma. “The culmination of everything that happened — the injuries, the offensive struggles. The fact you’re going to have your fourth offensive coordinator in three years, whether you stay or whether you go. And also some of the toxic things that were said to him, mostly by students on campus, and that’s kind of hard to brush aside,” he told SoonerScoop.
Arnold returns to Norman this weekend, as Auburn visits the Sooners to begin SEC play. The change seems to have worked for him, considering that he has 501 passing yards and has cut down the interceptions. Will ghosts of the past haunt the QB and coach in this tense clash?