Sooners hope to prove 2025 wasn't a 'flash in the pan'

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Heading into the 2025 college football season, Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables faced significant pressure. He was entering Year 4 as the head coach in Norman and had two losing seasons in his first three years. At a place like Oklahoma, that is unacceptable.

The Sooners also faced pressure entering their second SEC season as they looked to prove they belonged among the conference's elite programs. After going 6-7 in 2024, many critics thought Oklahoma was in over its head. But in 2025, Oklahoma silenced many of those doubters and showed why it remains one of the premier programs in college football.

The Sooners responded with a 10-3 season and a berth in the College Football Playoff. The Sooners ultimately fell to the Alabama Crimson Tide 34-24 at home in the first round, but the season still represented a major step forward for the program. On3's Kaiden Smith believes Oklahoma has the pieces to prove that last season was the beginning of something sustainable rather than a one-year breakthrough.

"To me, it just makes more sense for this team to build on what they did last year than last year being a flash in the pan," Smith said. "If you didn't have your quarterback coming back, if there was no sense of belief in the defense, and you lose a ton of guys on that side of the ball that were integral to your success last year, maybe a little bit different."

Oklahoma's 2025 season changed the trajectory of the Venables era. After questions about whether the Sooners could compete in the SEC, they responded by building one of the nation's best defenses and earning a spot in the College Football Playoff.

With John Mateer returning at quarterback, a strong core of defensive players back and another year of SEC experience, Oklahoma has a chance to prove that its breakthrough season was not an outlier, but the start of a new era in Norman.

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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Sooners hope to prove 2025 wasn't a 'flash in the pan'

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