Brent Venables 'could care less' about Oklahoma ties regarding next Sooners' offensive coordinator

The Oklahoma Sooners finally did the inevitable and fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell. While they won't be making a new hire anytime soon, they will have plenty of criteria and pull to hire the best possible candidate.

One thing head coach Brent Venables won't be looking for is ties to Oklahoma. Both of his offensive coordinator hires were former Sooners, but that does not mean he will look for one with his next hire.

"I could care less about OU ties. That doesn’t matter to me at all. I’ve hired some people who have had OU ties. I’ve hired people that had never been to the state of Oklahoma before."

Oklahoma has had plenty of excellent coaches in Norman throughout its history, so it's not necessarily a bad idea to consider a player with ties to the Sooners. However, whether it's a former player or former coach, hiring based on Oklahoma pedigree is how the Sooners ended up in this mess with Littrell and Finley in the first place.

Related: Five coaches the Oklahoma Sooners should pursue to replace OC Seth Littrell in 2025

That's not to say every Oklahoma hire has been a disaster. Running backs DeMarco Murray has put a few guys into the NFL and has recruited plenty of talented backs to Norman. Safeties coach Brandon Hall has an awesome track record of development and recruiting as well.

The Sooners under Venables have had a few strong hires from outside the Oklahoma bubble that have arguably been their best position coaches in wide receivers coach Emmett Jones and cornerbacks coach Jay Valai. Even offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh, who is one of the best in the country (if not the best), was outside of the Sooners' alumni database.

It's a smart move on Venables's part to spread his wings and change up the search in the pursuit of the best hire possible. It's not an exaggeration to say this hire will be his most important at Oklahoma, so he should be focusing on pedigree, production, and history of success instead of what uniform the next offensive coordinator wore in college.