The Oklahoma Sooners enjoyed a bounce-back season in 2025. After a disappointing 6-7 record in 2024, OU rebounded to go 10-3 this past season. The Sooners made the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2019, and won four straight games in “Red November” to make the CFP when their backs were against the wall.
Oklahoma did this despite having new play-callers on both sides of the ball. Head coach Brent Venables took over the play-calling duties on defense and served as the de-facto defensive coordinator, while new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Ben Arbuckle called the plays on offense. With both back in 2026, and special teams coordinator Doug Deakin returning for a third season, the Sooners will not have to replace a coordinator for the first time since the 2023 season, when they also won 10 games. OU will also have the same general manager for a second-straight season, as Jim Nagy is coming up on one year on the job.
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In fact, the only staff change the Sooners have made so far is firing tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley and replacing him with Jason Witten. Additionally, Oklahoma is moving Director of Sports Enhancement and Strength and Conditioning Jerry Schmidt to his new role on the staff as Elite Performance Liaison and replacing him with Associate Director of Sports Performance James Dobson. Couple that with the hiring of Roger Denny as the new Athletics Director to replace the retiring Joe Castiglione, and there is optimism for another successful season of OU Football in 2026.
So, how did OU’s resurgent season in 2025 stack up to the rest of the country? USA TODAY Sports’ Paul Myerberg gave letter grades for 2025 to all 136 teams that compete at the FBS level of college football. For their season, the Sooners were given an A-minus. In the SEC, that puts them below Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M, and on the same level as Georgia.
The Sooners tackled perhaps the toughest schedule in the entire country last season, earning their “Hard to Kill” moniker and winning with a devastating defense, standout special teams, and timely plays from the offense. Despite having obvious flaws that ultimately kept them from being a true national title contender of the highest order, going from six wins to ten wasn’t what many had predicted for Sooner Football.
However, the standard every single season at Oklahoma is to win the national championship, and the Sooners didn’t do that in 2025. Those in charge of the program believe they are building things the right way, and if they are correct, the 2025 season was a big building block in that pursuit of championships.
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Oklahoma is losing plenty of players who have exhausted their collegiate eligibility, including some very productive star veteran leaders. The Sooners are also losing a chunk of their roster to the transfer portal. However, Oklahoma didn’t lose any underclassmen early entrants to the 2026 NFL Draft, and they signed a good class of players in high school recruiting. OU has also made some key additions in the transfer portal to help bolster the roster.
With some very key pieces deciding to return to the roster, there’s hope that Oklahoma could fly even higher than a playoff appearance in 2026. It’ll always be a tough task in the SEC, but the Sooners have positioned themselves well in the very early portion of the offseason to have more success next season.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: How did USA TODAY Sports grade OU’s 2025 season?
