[autotag]SEC media days[/autotag] have come and gone for the Oklahoma Sooners, their first go-around participating in media days in their new conference. [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] and the Sooners had a successful week in Dallas, showing they won’t back down from the challenge that the [autotag]SEC[/autotag] presents.
One of the most influential voices in the SEC has been very complimentary of OU and of Venables since the Sooners joined the conference, and he was back at it again on Friday. ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is a trusted college football analyst and his show “The Paul Finebaum Show” is heard by SEC and college football fans everywhere.
Venables appeared on Finebaum’s show back on July 1st when Oklahoma officially joined the SEC, and had plenty to say about the football program. The Sooners’ head coach was impressive at media days, and on Friday’s edition of his show, Finebaum heaped praise on the third-year head coach after a caller gave his positive thoughts on Venables and OU.
“I agree,” Finebaum said. “I was with Coach Venables in Norman two weeks ago and a couple of other times. To me, he is very underrated. If you take Brent Venables out of Clemson, Dabo Swinney may have a title, he may not have a title instead of two titles and six playoff appearances.”
Finebaum’s remarks about the current head ball coach at Oklahoma certainly differ greatly from his thoughts about the guy who used to call the shots in Norman.
Venables’ work at Clemson, along with his history at Oklahoma, are what ultimately got him hired to be OU’s next head coach back in December of 2021. He helped Swinney build the program at Clemson into a national powerhouse that won the national title in 2016 and 2018.
Swinney was named the interim head coach at Clemson midway through the 2008 season, dropping the interim tag and becoming the full-time head coach in 2009. Venables joined the Clemson staff in 2012 and together the pair continued establishing the culture and roster that would ultimately take Clemson to the top. By their fourth season together, the Tigers were in the national championship game and by year five, Clemson was on top of the college football world.
Dominant defenses were the hallmark of six-straight [autotag]College Football Playoff[/autotag] appearances from 2015 to 2020 for the Tigers, with Venables having full control of that side of the ball. Everyone around that program knows how important Venables was and how big of a loss his departure was two seasons ago. Finebaum’s theory that the remarkable Clemson run doesn’t happen without Venables is likely pretty accurate.
Finebaum’s comments on Friday are just the latest in a steady stream this week of positivity from respected voices about the Sooners and the way Venables has the program going. Despite that, the media still has Oklahoma picked to finish eighth in their preseason SEC poll. Venables will garner even more praise if he can defy the expectations and take Oklahoma to the Playoff in their first season in the SEC.
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