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As Oklahoma Prepares for Class of 2024, Brent Venables Has Been Quite Busy

The Sooners' head coach and his staff have been flying and driving here and there for in-home visits with nearly every member of OU's "24k" incoming class.
John E. Hoover|
As Oklahoma Prepares for Class of 2024, Brent Venables Has Been Quite Busy
As Oklahoma Prepares for Class of 2024, Brent Venables Has Been Quite Busy

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Oklahoma Sooners

Brent Venables and his coaching staff have been busy men.

National Signing Day week has arrived. In two days, college football rosters will add their 2024 recruiting class.

But Venables and the Oklahoma staff didn’t wait until Wednesday to welcome their new class to Norman.

Rather, the OU coaches spent much of the previous two weeks flying and driving around the country to visit their newcomers in their homes, eating dinner with their families, posing for pictures and reaffirming everyone’s belief that Oklahoma is the right place for them (see below for the list of in-home visits publicized on social media).

“I was able to go out the last two weeks and see every player that, high school-wise, that’s coming in at midyear,” Venables said. “So, that was a lot of fun to travel around the country and see where they grew up and where they’re from.”

Venables said he expects 20 of the incoming class of 28 freshmen — who will sign their National Letters of Intent on Wednesday — to enroll early and begin classwork at OU in January and participate in spring football practice.

“We got a great group of high school players combined with a few transfers that will be coming in January, mid-January,” Venables said. “It’s a really exciting time.”

OU currently has verbal commitments from two defensive tackles, three defensive ends, one linebacker, seven defensive backs, five offensive linemen, two running backs, four wide receivers, two quarterbacks, one utility player and one kicker.

Venables isn’t certain that any of them will redshirt next season. Only a handful of players in the 2023 class redshirted this year.

“There’s a transformation that takes place. And so if you come to Oklahoma, that’s what you’re signing up for,” Venables said. “I think out of the top 20 ranked teams in college football to end the regular season, I think we had the most snaps of all freshmen and redshirt freshmen. So we promote that. There is opportunity. We’re trying to get everybody ready to play. We’re not trying to redshirt nobody. And you either show you need a little more development or you don’t.“

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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