W E E K LY E D I T I O N | D E C . 7-13 , 2 0 2 1 | O U D A I LY. C O M
OUDAILY
The University of Oklahoma’s independent student voice since 1916
‘WE GOT OUR GUY’
“OU football head coach Brent Venables during the celebration welcoming Venables inside Everest Training Center on Dec. 6.”
Venables to helm Sooners football after Riley’s departure MASON YOUNG @Mason_Young_0
With numerous current and former Oklahoma players in tow, Brent Venables led a march Monday morning from Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium to the Everest Training Center, closing a chapter of uncertainty en route to his coronation as the Sooners’ next head coach. Upon entering OU’s cavernous indoor facility, Venables was greeted by shouting fans, cheerleaders and a blaring Pride of Oklahoma as he stepped onto a large stage glistening with six of the university’s seven national championship trophies and Jordan Brand swagger. The party that began Sunday at Max Westheimer Airport where hundreds gathered late at night to welcome the plane bringing him to Norman would only continue Monday morning. In between, the coach said he squeezed in a latenight Whataburger run for a triple cheeseburger and onion rings, which elevated him to “hog heaven” after an exhausting evening. Venables’ entourage trickled in behind him and sat directly before the stage where he was introduced by Athletic Director Joe Castiglione, OU President Joseph Harroz, linebacker Caleb Kelly and play-by-play voice Toby Rowland. Many Sooners donned red shirts inscribed with a mantra that has gained significant meaning to Sooner Nation in the past seven days:
“We are OU football” Interim head coach Bob Stoops, who was absent from Monday’s festivities ahead of his College Football Hall of Fame induction Tuesday in Las Vegas, first uttered the phrase in reference to OU players less than 24 hours after Lincoln Riley’s shocking departure to become head coach at USC. One week later, Venables stood before players past and present as Riley’s replacement, galvanizing and reunifying the storied program he previously served as Stoops’ defensive coordinator from 19992011 and aided to its 2000 national championship. “This is Oklahoma, and Oklahoma is a special place,” Venables said during his introductory press conference after waking up at 4 a.m. from sheer excitement. “To have the opportunity to be the next football coach at Oklahoma, it’s something that you have to look at that you can’t turn down. I’ve been very patient in my career. I’m a very faith-driven decision maker. When this call came … this one was special.” Venables, Castiglione’s first choice to become the Sooners’ 23rd coach, returns to Norman after 10 seasons at Clemson, where he helped capture two national championships and made the Tigers a perennial top 25 defense from 2013 on. The 50-yearold brings with him his wife Julie, daughters Delaney and Addison and sons Jake and Tyler, the latter a Clemson safety who plans to play in the Tigers’ Cheez-It Bowl game against Iowa State. Along his meteoric rise to becoming one of college football’s best defensive coordinators, Venables
learned from a trio of heralded coaches. Venables played and coached for Kansas State legend Bill Snyder from 1991-98 before Stoops, who first recruited him to Manhattan, brought him to Oklahoma the first time, and he has spent the past several years under Clemson coach Dabo Swinney’s tutelage. Venables said he learned organization from Snyder, confidence from Stoops and how to love from Swinney. “I’m a simple guy,” Venables said. “I value some things that maybe other people don’t. Maybe more so, I value relationships. I value people. I value quality of life and I value simplicity. Just because you become the head coach doesn’t mean you can’t keep things simple. You control that narrative.” Venables spoke often during his celebratory speech of developing a program that’s relational and not transactional in nature — one that appeals to the player’s heart more than his talent. That mentality was ingrained at Clemson, where, despite an outstanding resume at Oklahoma, he was forced to start from scratch at making connections. “I’ve always believed in continuing to nurture your relationships,” Venables said. “Don’t get so caught up in the recruiting that you lose sight of what’s most important in your locker room, because that’s the lifeblood of your program.” The current lifeblood of OU’s program is quarterback Caleb Williams, who many fear will follow Riley to USC after he burst onto the scene and threw for 1,670 yards and 18 touchdowns in five and a half games.
Venables said he has already met with Williams and his father in hopes of keeping the star freshman in Norman. “Whether it’s Caleb or anybody else, everybody talks about recruiting, and … the next class and the next class after that,” Venables said. “There’s nobody that’s more important to recruit than your (current) players every day. You do that with relationships.” Had anyone told him when he left his old Oklahoma office for the last time he would return 10 years later as head coach, Venables joked he would’ve told them to check into a mental hospital. But, even from South Carolina, Venables was still attentive to OU, which he coached against in the 2014 Russell Athletic Bowl and the 2015 Orange Bowl. He waited stoically for an opportunity in Norman despite Auburn’s pursuit of his services last fall. “Coach Stoops and his family, Joe Castiglione and his family, our children, we’re christened together,” Venables said. “We’ve done it all. We changed diapers together. I’m a very connected person. I feel like for some relationships, you have business relationships. I’m not really like that. “I’m deeply connected, whether I say that outwardly or not. You pour your life into something, you pour your heart into it, you’re truly passionate about it, you don’t just close that door. I was looking on and pulling for them. It’s been a lot of fun.” Now Venables has his chance, but a tall task awaits after OU completes its Dec. 29 Alamo Bowl game against Oregon. In one week, six former
EDWARD REALI/THE DAILY
Sooners entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, eight recruits decommitted and Riley pilfered five assistants from his previous coaching staff. In keeping with simplicity, Venables said he plans to hire a defensive coordinator and is reportedly targeting Mississippi’s Jeff Lebby as offensive coordinator, which would provide him a better administrative perspective of the program as he settles into his first head coaching role. Shortly after his introductory press conference, Venables and assistant Cale Gundy visited the home of fourstar 2022 offensive tackle commit Jacob Sexton. That’s just the first of many recruiting check-ins he’ll soon make and the first of many checkpoints in OU’s looming transition to the SEC. At every stop, the pitch — like the program Venables has reenergized — is bigger than the coach, but having a coach like Venables can only help. “I’m just passionate about people and I am passionate about winning,” Venables said. “I’m passionate about winning the right way and never compromising those values. “A lot of people are using that scoreboard in that stadium as how they’re going to judge you. It’s a performance-based profession. It’s important to have success, but for me, my scoreboard isn’t in that stadium. It’s the lives that I impact, it’s the hearts that I reach, it’s the relationships that last a lifetime. There’s nothing that will trump that, and as a head coach, that’s what I want our program to be about.” masyoung@ou.edu