Baker Mayfield: Oklahoma’s next step under Brent Venables should show up as the program keeps building in the SEC

Former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield believes the Sooners will keep getting better under head coach Brent Venables, pointing to both what Oklahoma achieved last season and what it learned during its first year in the SEC. Mayfield’s comments come as Oklahoma continues to settle into a new conference environment, where the margin for error is smaller and roster-building cycles are more compressed.

Oklahoma reached the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2019 last year, an important marker for a program that had been searching for the right balance of quarterback play, execution, and consistency. For a team moving into the SEC, the playoff appearance was also a report that the transition was not only about survival, but also about contention.

The contrast, however, is stark. In its first season in the SEC, Oklahoma finished 6-7 and won only two conference games, results that were widely viewed as evidence that the learning curve would not be quick. Mayfield frames that kind of downturn as part of a rebuilding trajectory rather than a final verdict on Venables’ plan.

Under Venables, Oklahoma is still in the phase where recruiting, player development, and scheme identity are designed to match SEC-level physicality and speed. Mayfield’s assessment leans on the idea that teams improve most when they stop treating early struggles as temporary anomalies and instead use them as the basis for better preparation the following year.

Mayfield’s specific prediction is forward-looking. He expects Oklahoma to be stronger in 2026, suggesting that the program’s recent progress, including last season’s return to the playoff, will translate into more stable performance within conference play. In that sense, the statement is less about a single unit or a single game and more about the program’s momentum across multiple recruiting and development cycles.

What to watch next is whether Oklahoma can translate its ceiling from last season into repeatable weekly execution in SEC matchups. With the Sooners still early in their long-term SEC integration, the biggest test of improvement will likely be how consistently they can perform in conference play rather than whether they can make a run during a brief window of peak form.