FOX Sports color analyst Joel Klatt joined Colin Cowherd on The Herd yesterday and shared his thoughts on Oklahoma’s hire of Brent Venables as the Sooners’ head football coach.
Klatt was one of the first to congratulate the Sooner fan base Sunday night when the hiring became official.
Happy for @OU_Football fans tonight…You got a real one and the future should be as bright as the incredible history for #Sooners
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) December 6, 2021
“You got a real one and the future should be as bright as the incredible history for #Sooners,” Klatt tweeted at the time.
He expounded on those thoughts with Cowherd.
“I liked the hire of Brent Venables a lot. I think that when you look at Brent’s success over the last 20 years, he’s basically been in half the national championship games over the last 20 years. He is outstanding and he also has the history. I think that this was in large part a nod to the alumni and fan base, because that’s who they wanted right away because of his history there. He had won a national championship, he had been with Bob for a long time and he’s got great energy,” Klatt said to Cowherd.
Klatt was asked about Oklahoma’s upcoming move to the SEC and how that would impact Venables’ tenure at OU. One of the parts of the move that Klatt likes for Oklahoma is that the Sooners don’t have to sacrifice access to their recruiting base.
“Oklahoma is one of the great brands historically in college football. They are not losing their recruiting base while they move to the SEC. It may be a little bit more competitive on the field, but this is not a Nebraska move where they’re losing ties with the one recruiting base that really helped them become a great and maintain a great presence in the sport. So, I think it would be totally naïve to think that Oklahoma will not continue to be Oklahoma under Brent Venables. I think it’s an outstanding hire and I think that they will continue to be a great program,” Klatt said.
Klatt swatted away Cowherd’s attempts to suggest that Oklahoma could become an afterthought in the SEC.
“It is a good conference, but their record against the SEC is also very good. I think it’ll benefit Oklahoma that they don’t have to play nine conference games anymore. Now, they can play the eight conference games and a softy in November. You can play this game all day long. Yeah, but the SEC has been incredibly top-heavy over the last five or six years. The top is elite and the best in college football. There’s no doubt. It is the best conference. There’s no doubt about it. You mean to tell me that all of a sudden Texas A&M after being linked with Oklahoma in the Big 12 and being definitely in its shadow for all of that period of time is all the sudden going to be the big brother on the block? Texas A&M has basically no history as it compares to Oklahoma,” Klatt said.
Cowherd was less optimistic about the hire.
“Brent Venables is interesting. So, I have a program transitioning to the not only the toughest conference, Kentucky now is good, Arkansas is now good. The difference between the ACC, the Pac-12 and the SEC, you can play well and lose regularly on a Saturday night. But, here’s the other thing. Even Saban acknowledges, yeah, you can’t stop anybody anymore. I mean, Georgia can’t stop [Alabama]. Venables is not only a defensive guy, his connections are defense, his world’s defense, his sensibility is defense. The best offense is winning. Bryce is the best offense, Cam was the best offense, Burrow was the best offense. In the defensive conference, the best quarterback, the best offense wins. I’m not sure if Venables is a home run. I have my reservations,” Cowherd said.
Maybe nobody passed along the news to Cowherd that Oklahoma hired one of college football’s top offensive coordinators in Jeff Lebby.
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions.
[listicle id=49643]