Oklahoma Sooners head football coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] answered many questions in 2023.
After being hired to be the next head coach of the historic OU football program on Dec. 5, 2021, he had plenty of work to do to build the program in his image after his predecessor’s sudden and unexpected departure.
At the time, Oklahoma fans didn’t know just how much of a rebuild it would be. Venables clearly believed the Sooners had slipped from the standard of toughness, physicality and discipline that made them one of college football’s premier programs.
Venables’ inaugural season was a disappointment. OU went 6-7, its worst record of the 21st century. At this time last year, there were plenty of questions nationally about Venables and his direction for the program in Norman.
A 10-3 season last year answered many of the critics. The Sooners bounced back, improving in just about every area. A [autotag]Red River Rivalry[/autotag] win over Texas was the season’s highlight, but unfocused and mistake-filled football plagued OU in losses against Kansas and Oklahoma State.
Those games not only kept Oklahoma out of the [autotag]College Football Playoff[/autotag] after a 7-0 start, they also kept the Sooners out of the [autotag]Big 12[/autotag] championship game. Oklahoma settled for an Alamo Bowl berth, which was an uneven, turnover-plagued loss against Arizona with a different starting quarterback and offensive coordinators.
The message from Venables to his team was clear: The Sooners still had plenty of room for improvement.
Now, the Sooners enter the toughest conference in college football, the [autotag]SEC[/autotag].
Oklahoma must continue along its trajectory and take another step forward in 2024. However, a brutal schedule in a very strong conference will make that difficult to do. But Venables was hired with the SEC move in mind, and he has been preparing for this for 2 1/2 years. His focus is competing for championships in 2024 and beyond.
OU looks ready to improve again this season with a veteran defense leading the way. A younger, but talented, offense has big potential, and the head coach knows special teams must be better. Along with breaking in new coordinators on both sides of the ball, there are points of concern on the roster and, of course, with the schedule. But the Sooners have the pieces to make another leap in 2024. They also have a head coach who believes he has improved since this journey started as well.
Venables joined the SEC Network’s Marty Smith and Ryan McGee on their show, “Marty and McGee” to talk about his team and the program overall entering the SEC. He was asked what led to him finally becoming a head coach after a long stint as an assistant at Kansas State, defensive coordinator at Oklahoma and then Clemson.
“I’ve always had this stance. That if you have what you’ve always valued, don’t screw it up,” Venables said. “I think too often we go with the narrative of the next raise or the next title or the next promotion. We make it about ourselves, and then we get into our feelings, and we start comparing our career to someone else’s or whatever everybody else expects you to do. When you have this amazing quality of life, don’t screw it up. So I always had this amazingly high standard for what it would take for (Venables’ wife) Julie and our family to pivot, and I’ve always been a people person.”
But, Venables explained that his relationships and confidence in Oklahoma’s leadership, namely athletic director [autotag]Joe Castiglione[/autotag] and university president [autotag]Joseph Harroz Jr.[/autotag] led him back to Norman.
“So at the end of the day, when this opportunity came, you’re talking about somebody in myself, in our family, all four of our children were born in Norman, the relationship, the peace, and the confidence I had in the leadership of Joe Castiglione and Joe Harroz, these are mainstays at Oklahoma during my career,” Venables said. “I know if I’m going to be successful as a head coach, I want to wake up every day when my feet hit the ground and love what I do, where I do it, and where I do it with, and it was just like check, check, check. I had this peace because of the past experience, and I always knew, man, there’s no limits on what Oklahoma can achieve. This is the standard in college football.”
Venables was long coveted by other programs to become a head coach after successful stints calling defenses at both Oklahoma and Clemson. He was the co-defensive coordinator (along with Mike Stoops) for the 2000 team that won the national championship at OU and the 2003 team that played for a national title. He was the solo DC for the 2004 and 2008 OU teams that played for national championships as well. He was a a part of seven of [autotag]Bob Stoops[/autotag]’ 10 conference titles at Oklahoma.
During his time at Clemson, the Tigers rose to national prominence, often with Venables’ defense leading the charge. Clemson won two national titles (2016 and 2018), played in two more national championship games (2015 and 2019), and fell in the [autotag]CFP[/autotag] semifinals twice (2017 and 2020). Six conference titles came from the 10-year Dabo Swinney-Brent Venables partnership at Clemson.
Though Venables was heavily pursued on multiple occasions to leave Clemson and take the reins of his own program, he didn’t budge. That was until his former employer came calling. Now, over 2 1/2 years later, Venables has the Sooners on the rise again after the rebuild that proved necessary. They were slipping under former head coach Lincoln Riley. Though some rough times have followed, the roster looks more and more like a Venables team.
Venables and Oklahoma agreed to, essentially, a two-year contract extension this offseason, meaning the feeling of fit and belonging the head coach has in Norman is mutual. The extension’s statement is obvious. The Sooners believe they have their guy in place to lead them into the [autotag]Southeastern Conference[/autotag], and Brent Venables is fired up to be the one in that position.
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