Brent Venables Explains Why LSU Home Games at Night Are a 'Whole 'Nother Challenge'

BATON ROUGE, LA — Brent Venables says the two games his teams played against LSU — and enduring their fans’ deafening shouts and relentless hostility — rank 1 and 2 on his list of the most challenges places he’s ever coached.

And those were technically neutral-site games.

“And I mean that sincerely,” Venables said. “It was deafening. Could not hear on the headsets.”

Venables’ Oklahoma team lost to the Tigers 21-14 in the New Orleans Superdome for the 2003 national championship, and his Clemson team lost to the Tigers 42-25 in the 2019 national championship.

The Superdome is obviously enclosed and has always carried a reputation as an echo canyon. But those bowl games featured capacity crowds of 79,342 (then a dome record) and 76,885, respectively.

HOW TO WATCH OU at LSU

When OU kicks off Saturday evening at Tiger Stadium, it will be the third-largest crowd ever to watch the Sooners play: 102,321 is the listed capacity.

The Sooners draw a crowd everywhere they go, and that’s been especially true in their first year in the SEC. The official seating numbers for the OU game this season tied the highest numbers of the year for Missouri (62,321 capacity) and Auburn (88,043 capacity), and ranked second at Ole Miss (67,926, behind the 68,126 at the Georgia game two weeks later), although observers from all three schools said there were more fans in town for the Sooners than usual.

“Going on the road is a real thing. Winning in the SEC is incredibly difficult,” Venables said. “Winning in Baton Rouge is a whole ‘nother challenge.”

The thing is, large crowds and fan noise doesn’t seem to intimidate this Oklahoma team. Before last week’s victory over Alabama, the Sooners’ three best conference games of the year were all on the road. They jumped out early and won late at Auburn, they led 14-10 at halftime at Ole Miss, and they were inches away from winning at Missouri before a miracle deep ball and an apocalyptic fumble in the final seconds.

“External factors don’t win for you,” Venables said. “But it’s going to be hostile, and our players are going to have to embrace the chaos of game day on the road and have great focus and intensity and passion.

“Execution is what wins for you. Taking care of the ball is what wins for you. Being physical and playing with great effort are the things that win for you. The defense is going to have to more than do their part to give us a chance on Saturday night.”

“I think the key is just focusing on the basic stuff, ignoring the crowd and focusing on LSU," said right guard Febechi Nwaiwu. LSU has a great team, great defense. We have to be at the top of our game to be able to win this game, just like every other game, so it’s really just ignoring the outside noise and focusing on the task at hand.”

"I've heard about Death Valley," said safety Billy Bowman. "I've heard it's probably gonna be the best stadium I'll walk into — I've never been there. But I'm just looking forward to it really. It's always fun when you have the opposing team cheering loud, and being in that type of environment, it's really just you accomplishing a dream from a little kid, just growing up wanting to play at places like that."

Venables said that during his 35-year coaching career, a handful of road atmospheres stand out as difficult environments.

Texas A&M, Georgia, Florida State and South Carolina “come to mind right away.” Kansas State in 2000 “was deafening. … That was electric that night.”

But it’s telling that, in his mind, games against LSU — even in New Orleans — rank No. 1 and 2.

“So those are two of the places, in that state, against that team, two tough challenging environments,” he said. “And that’s what we’ll probably experience.”

Venables, who coached at Clemson for a decade, was asked who the real “Death Valley” is, Clemson or LSU.

“Let me just look at these stats here,” he said. “The one we’re going into this week is 14-1 in home night games since coach (Brian) Kelly has been there. In three years, they’re 18-2 overall. Listen, I’ve heard from every coach that I love and respect that’s been in the biggest venues, the best of the best, and everybody points to Death Valley, Baton Rouge, night game. ‘Hope that your team doesn’t get scheduled,’ because that’s the toughest challenge there is in college football. I know we’re going to get the best out of the LSU faithful. It’s something that we’re really looking forward to as well. You love a challenge and you know that that’s going to be a real thing. You tell your players that external factors don’t win — the execution, the physicality, effort — do the things that you can control.”