Oklahoma will hire Washington State offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle for the same role on Brent Venables’ staff, according to The Athletic. Arbuckle has led the Cougars’ offense the past two seasons.
Venables fired Seth Littrell as OC after the Sooners’ 35-9 loss to South Carolina. The week before, Oklahoma scored just three points against Texas.
Co-offensive coordinator Joe Jon Finley took over as the Sooners’ play-caller. Oklahoma averaged 27.4 points in its final five regular-season games, but that is significantly skewed by the 59 points scored against Maine, an FCS-level school.
The Sooners finished 121st among FBS schools in total offense, averaging 322.5 yards per play and 4.78 yards per play. Their average of 24.3 points per game (and season total of 292 points) ranked No. 94 in the country.
Under Arbuckle, Washington State ranked 12th in FBS with an average of 36.8 points (441 total) per game. The Cougars also averaged 440.4 yards in total offense, an average of 6.65 yards per play.
Oklahoma finished 6-6 in their first season in the SEC and struggled to find consistent quarterback play all season. Sophomore Jackson Arnold (a five-star recruit) was benched for freshman Michael Hawkins Jr., with the offense switching back to Arnold.
Injuries have also wiped out the wide receiving corps, with the roster’s top six pass catchers missing significant time. Leading receiver Deion Burks played in just five games and finished with 31 catches for 245 yards and three touchdowns. And Brenan Thompson was the only other receiver to catch more than one TD.
Arnold finished with 1,421 yards and 12 passing TDs, completing 63% of his throws. He was also the Sooners’ second-leading rusher with 444 yards and three scores on 150 carries.
Whether Arnold will return next season — and how Arbuckle’s hiring could factor into that decision — has yet to be determined. After Oklahoma’s 37-17 loss to LSU last Saturday, he told reporters that there was “nothing that made me want to leave or nothing that kept me from being here.”
There have been rumors that Washington State quarterback John Mateer could enter the transfer portal, which is sure to lead to rumblings that he could follow Arbuckle to Norman, Oklahoma. The sophomore threw for 3,139 yards and 29 touchdowns, completing 65% of his passes. He also ran for 826 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Before running WSU’s offense, Arbuckle was the offensive coordinator at Western Kentucky, where he oversaw a unit that scored 36.4 points per game and averaged 352.2 yards passing in an Air Raid-style system.