After a couple of feel-good outings for Oklahoma, the questions surrounding the 2022 team and beyond are creeping back in with Brent Venables and company.

Coming off the 38-35 loss to Baylor where the same miscues that plagued OU to start the conference season came roaring back with a vengeance against the Bears, the question is being asked whether OU is actually getting better as the season progresses.

Furthermore, now that OU is completely out of any sort of a wacky scenario to get to Arlington for the Big 12 championship, where do things go from here for the final three games?

“Sometimes it’s easy to sit outside and judge and say, you lose your fourth game and the season’s over,” said Venables at his Tuesday press conference. “That’s one way to look at it. To me, if you judge it that way, then when bad things happen in life, you just kind of pack it in. That doesn’t happen when you invest in it, invest in the game of football or any sport.”

Venables continued to reiterate it’s going to be about response and about how the Sooners can finish this last fourth of the season.

His initial assessment was the team came out fired up for Monday’s practice, in getting ready to head to West Virginia on Saturday.

It’s debatable whether some fans have given up on the season, but Venables is doing all he can to make sure the players don’t go that direction.

“It’s about the chase. It’s about the commitment to one another,” Venables said. “It’s about the love for what you do. And even through the discouragement, you accept everything that comes with it. So, that’s what this is about, challenging our guys, every player and every coach through all of it.

“I think perspective is what it’s all about. Your perspective, it always drives your performance. So if you’ve got a bad perspective, you’re gonna have a bad performance moving forward. I think having the right perspective right now is as important as it’s been all year so that we can realize the potential of our team.”

Effort with technique

Some of the issues for OU have been the basics, no question. The desire remains strong, but you can’t get to C without doing A and B first.

And you can’t be a good team if all the individual parts aren’t doing their job to the best of their ability instead of trying to do too much.

Effort is great, still, but it’s the search for consistent effort with technique. Venables laid out a perfect example with Baylor’s opening kickoff return.

“That's the formula for success. That's part of it. It's effort with technique,” Venables said. “It's the kickoff and they bring it out to the 40-yard line. We're supposed to set the edge on it. We've done a good job of setting the edge. But the one time you decide on not setting the edge, you come inside the block when you're supposed to come outside the block, all your help is inside and you go inside.

“Then they run it up the sideline and, next thing you know, they've got momentum and they've flipped the field. Instead of pinning them inside the 18-yard line, which we should have, which is give or take a 30 percent difference in their opportunity to score, we let them out to the 40.”

The discipline and physicality parts for this team that seem to be there one week and then non-existent in others.

Season captains coming

The weekly captain idea was a different one in Norman, and you could argue either way if the results are matching up to what was intended.

It’s just another part of the plan and foundation from Venables to have the program be more player-led than ever before.

“We’re trying to develop leadership and promote guys the opportunity to show whether or not they can lead, show them how to lead. Again, that’s what coaching is all about. That’s what trying to have the right type of locker room’s all about. Not where you’ve got three or four guys, that’s the only leaders you’ve got.

“I want a whole locker room full of leaders and the only way they become leaders is trying to put them in a leadership position. You do that one experience at a time, one conversation at a time.”

Venables said permanent team captains will be named following the end of the regular season, voted on by the players.

Stoops a great example

No doubt Drake Stoops became an initial name for OU fans because of the last name and being Bob’s son. But Drake is in his fifth year in the OU program, and it’s a heck of a lot more than that now.

He has established himself as one of the most consistent performers on a weekly basis and someone who hasn’t been afraid to do the little things to get the job done.

“You want to have a whole locker room full of guys like that,” Venables said. “You want young people of excellence. You want as many guys like as you can. You hope other people learn from them. I think environment is important and people are contagious.

“Having a bunch of guys that know how to work, how to respond, how to have the right attitude every day. What they do off the field is the same as what they do on the field.”

Stoops did catch a nine-yard touchdown pass in the loss to Baylor and played 78 of the team’s 81 snaps.