It was a celebration inside the Everest Indoor Training Center as University of Oklahoma president Joseph Harroz Jr. and OU athletics director Joe Castiglione officially introduced Brent Venables as Oklahoma’s 23rd head football coach.
Atop a stage adorned with Oklahoma’s past national championship trophies, Harroz addressed why Venables was the right man for the job to those in attendance.
“When we went out and looked for a coach, we had two criteria. The first criteria was do they have coaching excellence? And you look at the resume — and I know you all already know it — but our new coach has a resume second to none,” Harroz said.
OU’s 15th president then listed off some of Venables’ accomplishments. Harroz detailed that each of Venables’ past seven defenses at Clemson ranked inside the top 15 in total defense and that six were ranked inside the top 10 in total defense.
He talked about how Venables has never been a part of a losing season in his 26 years as a full-time coach and that Venables’ teams have won 13 conference championships and played in eight national championship games.
“He’s got three rings to prove it,” Harroz said.
Then, Harroz discussed the second piece of criteria that Venables met.
“He’s known and his resume is complete. He’s waited his entire career patiently for the right head coaching job. But, the second criteria isn’t just are you a great coach? It’s will you believe and will you live those ideals we talked about? About developing the whole student athlete, about preparing you not just for the league, but well beyond. About being a place where we keep our commitments and a place where we are family. And I could not be more proud to have him as our new coach. Let’s wrap this thing up for my part. Coach, welcome home,” Harroz said.
All of this was to be expected. After all, it was a pep rally complete with the Pride of Oklahoma, the spirit squads and the RUF/NEKS.
What caught the crowd by surprise and delighted them all the same was the not so subtle dig at former head coach Lincoln Riley before that.
Harroz referenced the highlight video littered with past Oklahoma greats that played before he, Castiglione and then Venables took the stage.
“You saw in the video the Sooner tradition. Right, you see all the greats. All the great coaches who it seems all names start with a ‘B.’ That’s right. You hear me,” Harroz said.
Message received loud and clear. Oklahoma feels it officially has its next “great” head coach.
One of its past greats couldn’t attend, but Harroz passed along Bob Stoops’ message.
“Alright, I’ve got a message to deliver from somebody that wishes he were here. As you might imagine, there’s been a lot of conversation with Bob Stoops over the last week. Right, he steps up every time. He wanted to be here, but he’s busy on FOX. He’s also busy getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. That’s right. And so, Bob delivered a speech to me to give to you and it’s as you can imagine of some length. It’s seven words. These are his seven words and I’ll read them verbatim. He said, ‘You tell them. We got our guy,'” Harroz said.
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