Where does Brent Venables rank among OU's longest-tenured coaches?

The Oklahoma Sooners have enjoyed immense success over the course of their storied 131-season history that spans from 1895 to 2025. A total of 23 men have held the title of head coach at OU, and the man who currently holds the job, Brent Venables, is entering Year 5 in Norman. While it still sometimes feels like yesterday that Venables was hired, he's now established himself with four years under his belt in charge of the Sooners.

But what about the other 22 men to be Oklahoma's head coach? How many of them have had a longer tenure at OU than Venables has? Today, we'll take a look at the least and most-tenured head coaches in OU Football history, stacking Venables among them.

First though, a couple of notes: The program did not have a head coach in 1896, its second season in existence, after John Harts, the school's first-ever coach, left to go prospecting for gold in the Arctic. Additionally, after Lincoln Riley left to be the coach at USC following the 2021 regular season, Bob Stoops, Riley's predecessor in Norman, became the only interim head coach in program history for one game, the 2021 Alamo Bowl victory over the Oregon Ducks . Venables was hired to replace Riley.

Here is every full-time head coach in OU history, stacked by tenure at Oklahoma. One Season John Harts (1895) Fred Roberts (1901) Fred Ewing (1904) Jim Tatum (1946) Jim Mackenzie (1966) Howard Schnellenberger (1995) Two Seasons Mark McMahon (1902-1903) Lawrence Jones (1935-1936) Gomer Jones (1964-1965) Three Seasons Lewie Hardage (1932-1934) John Blake (1996-1998) Four Seasons Vernon Parrington (1897-1900) Thomas Stidham (1937-1940) Brent Venables (2022-present) Five Seasons Adrian Lindsey (1927-1931) Dewey Luster (1941-1945) Lincoln Riley (2017-2021) Six Seasons Chuck Fairbanks (1967-1972) Gary Gibbs (1989-1994) 16 Seasons Barry Switzer (1973-1988) 17 Seasons Bud Wilkinson (1947-1963) 18 Seasons Bob Stoops (1999-2016) 22 Seasons Bennie Owen (1905-1926) This time next year, there will only be six coaches who have led the Sooners for more seasons than Venables, and this time two years from now, there will only be four men who will have coached Oklahoma for more seasons than he will have by then. OU is the only program in major college football history to produce four head coaches with at least 100 wins, as Bennie Owen, Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer, and Bob Stoops stand tall as giants whose tenures will be tough for any Oklahoma coach to reach.