Oklahoma Sooners to hire next offensive coordinator 'in the next few days'

I'd bet a pretty good chunk of money that interim offensive coordinator Joe Jon Finley isn't in consideration for the job (or will have any job with the Sooners in the future). 

The search has been pretty tight-lipped throughout, with very little coming out of the university directly. What I do know and can tell you is that some finalists have seemingly emerged out of the little information we get: Washington State's Ben Arbuckle, Tulane's Joe Craddock, and Georgia Tech's Buster Faulkner. Those are the three names I continue to hear about in this search the most. Baylor's Jake Spavital has also popped up, but that name hasn't been echoed as often as the rest. 

Those three are all coming off of disappointing final games, but each has guided a top-15 offense in college football this season in different ways. 

Arbuckle's offense will get labeled as an Air Raid scheme by people who don't know what that means. When you watch what's going on on the field, he's putting together as creative a rushing offense as you'll find to manufacture anything on the ground, given how poor Wazzu's offensive line and running back room is. He's been able to scheme things up well enough in the passing game to make John Mateer productive as well, something that is no small feat. 

Tulane's offense is more akin to a pro-style offense to what you might see from a Sean McVay offense in the NFL. They employ plenty of under-center and pistol looks with a physical run game and shots off of play-action. Tulane is one of the most explosive offenses in college football for a reason, and Craddock has been consistently successful at both Troy and Tulane now.

Because of how effective and diverse Georgia Tech is on the ground, many will call it a modern triple-option. While it's not quite that, they are a pretty diverse rushing attack. I call it playing to a player's strengths with their multitude of running backs and Haynes King's talents as a rusher over a passer. It's an offense I would be intrigued by if they got the right quarterback for it, especially because Faulkner's proven to be able to adapt his scheme for the players he has. 

There's a lot that will go into this search. Culture fit, fit with the coaching staff, and maybe even portal additions will all factor into what this search entails. Given how little has come out of Norman in this search, there's still the possibility that their next OC is someone entirely different. 

I would expect us to hear something concrete by Monday. This should be finalized quickly now that the season is over.