[autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] is in year two as the head coach for the Oklahoma Sooners. Venables had been a long-time assistant coach for the [autotag]Kansas State Wildcats[/autotag], Oklahoma and Clemson Tigers.
His first year in Norman as the head man didn’t go as planned. The Sooners went 6-7 and had its first losing season since 1998. Year two has started off much better.
The Sooners are 5-0 heading into the [autotag]Red River Rivalry[/autotag]. The defense went from one of the worst in the nation to now one of the best. They are a top 30 total defense and top three scoring defense. That can be attributed to the work of Venables and his coaching staff.
With it being Venables’ second season as head coach, you can imagine he’s not one of the top 10 highest-paid coaches but where exactly does he fall? USA TODAY Sports put out a list of the highest-paid coaches and Venables comes in at No. 17 making $7.1 million a year.
This actually ranks second among Big 12 schools. Only [autotag]Oklahoma State Cowboys[/autotag]’ [autotag]Mike Gundy[/autotag] makes more at $7.625 million. Next is [autotag]Kansas Jayhawks[/autotag]’ [autotag]Lance Leipold[/autotag] at $5.75 million and Texas Longhorns‘ [autotag]Steve Sarkisian[/autotag] at $5.6 million.
Both Venables and Sarkisian have their teams sitting at 5-0 and ranked in the top 12 in the country. If they are able to continue their success and get both programs back to their high standards, there’s no doubt neither coach will be out of the top 10 for long.
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