After he fired Ben Arbuckle, Brent Venables has turned Oklahoma’s play-calling duties to a hall of fame tight end and his own tight ends coach, a guy who has never coached on the college level before this year, and a guy who’s only experience as an offensive coordinator was at a parochial school in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

Everyone say hi to Jason Witten.

You know Witten the player: 17 season in the NFL, a spectacular resume with the Dallas Cowboys, as good as the game of football has ever seen.

You also know a little about Witten the coach: unimpeachable results so far as a recruiter, whether in the transfer portal or bringing in 5-star high school talent; an instant developer of tight end talent, as evidenced by the impact transfers Rocky Beers and Hayden Hansen have had in their first season at OU.

But you’re gonna know a whole lot more after Saturday’s game at Florida.

The Sooners (4-4 overall, 2-3 SEC) and Gators (5-3, 3-3) tangle at 6:45 p.m. CT at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium — aka The Swamp — in Gainesville.

Witten knows a little about playing at The Swamp. As a Tennessee sophomore in 2001, he and the No. 4-ranked Volunteers went into Gainesville and left with a 34-32 victory over the No. 2-ranked Gators. It was his only win over Steve Spurrier’s squad in their three matchups — in which Witten combined to catch eight passes for 76 yards.

But now he’s in another world entirely. His team is different. So is his role.

Don’t be surprised to see Oklahoma’s offense have some success against the Gators. 

For one, Florida’s defense isn’t very good.

But two, Witten will utilize his prodigious NFL experience, his five-year stint as head coach at Liberty Christian in Argyle, TX, when he was also the primary play caller who guided the program to back-to-back state championships, and everything he’s learned in 10 short months at Oklahoma.

And three, while it’s entirely possible that Oklahoma players who stood with Arbuckle for most of the last two seasons have been feeling pretty bad all week because they didn’t play well enough to keep their OC from getting canned, those players are going to more than likely double down for Witten.

Especially John Mateer, who rode with Arbuckle at Washington State and then came with him to Norman, but hasn’t been good in either of his two seasons as Arbuckle’s QB.

Mateer wants to turn this season around as bad as anyone.

Witten spent the week figuring out which plays Mateer likes, then emphasized which plays he’s good at. Then he went to work breaking down the strengths and weakness of the Gators defense, looking for areas he can exploit. 

Same with Bill Bedenbaugh’s offensive line, and Deland McCullough’s running backs. Maximize what they do well, avoid what they don’t. Witten is going to want to run the ball. Which plays can the o-line block? Which plays do Lloyd Avant and Tory Blaylock and the others do well? Witten's not here to coddle Mateer. He’s going to try to move the football on Saturday night any way he can.

And given his time in the NFL, Witten will want to run the football partly because the Sooners need to do that now and for the rest of November to have any success, and partly because Arbuckle simply put too much of the offense on Mateer’s shoulders. Witten won’t do that. Probably.

Florida’s defense ranks 57th against the run and 104th against the pass. Opponents are scoring 28.1 points per game against the Gators, which ranks 103rd nationally, and Jon Sumrall’s defense is 79th overall. They’re also 91st in red zone defense and 119th in third-down percentage defense.

Witten’s offense will have an opportunity to move the football and score points.

The other side of the coin is a scary one for Oklahoma fans: is this OU offense’s best days behind it? Did Arbuckle get everything he could out of them? Is Witten in over his head as a play caller in the SEC?

We’ll know more late Saturday night.