Yep, I thought he was 7-7 for some reason, stuck in my mind. 7-6 with a home loss to La-Monroe. Stoops 7-5 first season. Tressel 7-5 first season. Mack 5 losses his second season. Y'all are feeling Sark bigly now, and he was 5-7 his first season.
And prettttty sure if Cale stayed after using the N bomb in practice, I bet you would have a complaint about that.
Again, I'm not even saying I'm so confident in OU or that Venables is for sure the dude. The jury is out is my point, when some people are saying it's a done deal based on a whole bunch of wishcasting. There is no national narrative of this, and in fact the current narrative is how dramatic the defensive improvement, both on-field and recruiting, have been.
That said, you did take TX straight up in some years where OU was favored, so to be sporting I will offer a $150 straight up wager.
I mean, sure guy, I bet they wanted Dillon Gabriel over Caleb Williams. For sure. Definitely no massive roster turnover happened. Definitely no complete change of the defensive scheme.
OU's losses with Gabriel playing the game, they scored 34, 35, 20, 48, and 32, but please do tell me more about how the offense lost those games.