Oklahoma ‘excited’ for Seth Littrell’s debut as OC but wants to keep it simple in bowl

Brent Venables sees opportunity in the challenge of playing the Alamo Bowl with a first-time starter at QB and a new offensive coordinator, so his message to Seth Littrell is to keep it simple against Arizona.

OU will be breaking in not only a first-time starter at quarterback in freshman Jackson Arnold when it takes on Arizona in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28. The Sooners will also take the field in San Antonio with a new offensive coordinator, as Seth Littrell will make his Sooners play-calling debut after taking over as offensive coordinator late last month.

It’s a distinctly modern-day scenario for Oklahoma. The team’s starting quarterback, Dillon Gabriel, hit the transfer portal earlier this month before committing to Oregon, while offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby left 48 hours after the regular-season finale to take over as head coach at Mississippi State. Now the Sooners will head into a bowl matchup with a top-15 team with a pair of newcomers in prominent roles — a soft launch, so to speak, of what’s to come in 2024.

“You say challenge; I just look at opportunity,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said. “It’s better now kind of working through all that than next year — get baptized going into the SEC…. We’ll adjust and adapt. The coaches are excited. Players are excited. There’s some newness to it. Just an opportunity to go out and play another game together.”

***CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO SOONERS ILLUSTRATED AND GET YOUR ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION FOR 50% OFF***

Littrell, who joined the Sooners as an offensive analyst in the spring, was elevated to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Nov. 29, just a few days after Lebby’s departure for Mississippi State. It was a relatively short search for Venables, who vetted several candidates — including sitting head coaches, NFL assistants and quarterback gurus — before making the quote-unquote easy hire in promoting Littrell.

The 45-year-old former Oklahoma H-back and captain on the national championship team in 2000 brings prior experience as an offensive coordinator and a head coach. He most recently spent seven seasons as head coach at North Texas from 2016-22, and prior to that he spent time as offensive coordinator at North Carolina, Indiana and Arizona.