Oklahoma’s AD Tweeted Just One Emoji After Landing Brent Venables

Oklahoma football filled its big coaching vacancy over the weekend, after losing Lincoln Riley to USC. Brent Venables, the program's former defensive coordinator under Bob Stoops, is heading back to Norman for his first head coaching job.

Venables, who had been at Clemson under Dabo Swinney since 2012, had been the subject of numerous rumors in the days after Riley's abrupt departure. In a YouTube video posted by OU punter Michael Turk on Wednesday, a number of players predicted Venables as the next coach.

Now, it's official. On Sunday night, athletic director Joe Castiglione celebrated the hire online in a very simple manner: one lock emoji.

Castiglione has plenty of experience with the defensive mastermind that he just locked up. He took over as the AD at OU in 1998.

Months after being hired to lead the Sooners athletic department, he hired Bob Stoops as the school's next football coach. Stoops brought in Venables, then the linebackers coach at his alma mater Kansas State, to be co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. He remained in Norman until 2011, when he left for Clemson.

Venables helped the Sooners win a national title under Stoops, and led two championship-winning defenses at Clemson. He'll look to maintain the momentum that the OU program has from the late Stoops and Riley years.

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