Brent Venables is Unbeaten in Rematches, But College Football Playoff is a Different Animal

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Brent Venables has been here before as a coach — even if he didn’t realize it.

Venables leads No. 8-ranked Oklahoma into a College Football Playoff showdown with none other than No. 9 Alabama on Dec. 19 — the very same Alabama that OU beat 23-21 just a month before in Tuscaloosa, way back on Nov. 15.

It’s certainly not normal for the College Football Playoff bracket to include rematches, but it has now happened four times since the playoff era began in 2014 — two this year.

In Venables’ coaching career, his teams played a familiar foe in the conference championship game after meeting during the regular season.

And Venables’ side was 4-0 in those games.

Coincidence? Or does he know of some secret sauce that Bob Stoops and Dabo Swinney cooked up that they could share with Venables?

“Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't have guessed that's what the record is,” Venables told Sooners On SI Sunday during a video conference call to discuss the Sooners’ return to the CFP. “Really haven’t kept track myself. I think it's more coincidence than not. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.”

The four times in Venables’ career it happened, he was either co-defensive coordinator or defensive coordinator at OU or Clemson.

In 2000, the Sooners upset Kansas State 41-31 in Manhattan, then hung on to beat the Wildcats again 27-24 in the Big 12 Championship Game in Kansas City on their way to the program’s seventh and most recent national title.
In 2002, OU smoked Colorado 27-11 in Boulder, then pounded the Buffs again 29-7 in the Big 12 title game in Houston.
In 2007, Oklahoma pulled away from Missouri 43-31 in their meeting in Norman, then dominated the Tigers 38-17 in the Big 12 title game in San Antonio.
And in 2020, Clemson lost to Notre Dame 47-40 in double overtime in South Bend, then crushed the Irish 34-10 in the ACC title game in Charlotte (the Irish played as a provisional ACC member for that one season due to all the COVID cancellations).

Rematches are going to happen. It’s no big deal — unless, for whatever reason, it is.

CFP selection committee chair Hunter Yurachek was asked Sunday if the committee gives any consideration to rematches — whether avoiding them or maybe even efforting to stage them.

“There's absolutely no consideration in the room for that,” Yurachek said. “We rank the teams, again, 1 through (25), and then as those rankings come out, we will place the five highest conference champions into the bracket and then we will place the seven highest at-large teams accordingly into the bracket, so there's no thought as to who could play who in any round throughout the playoff.”

There's another rematch in this year's field, featuring another collision between Ole Miss and Tulane.

The two previous rematches in the CFP happened recently: In 2021-22, Georgia beat Alabama 33-18 in the national title game in Indianapolis after Bama beat Georgia 41-24 for the SEC Championship in Atlanta, and last year, Oregon beat Ohio State 32-31 in Eugene before the Buckeyes got revenge with a 41-21 beatdown of the Ducks in the Rose Bowl playoff quarterfinals.

So while Venables’ teams are 4-0 in postseason rematches, that mark is 0-2 against the regular-season winner when they meet again in the College Football Playoff.

The Clemson-Notre Dame games were about five weeks apart — close to what the span will be when OU and Bama meet again in Norman.

“You know, if you’re playing a team for the second time, and the second time you’re playing during the championship, you’re both worthy to be there,” Venables said.

“For whatever reason, we’ve been on the right side of it.”

Oklahoma Sooners, Brent Venables and Gracen Halton — Brent Venables hugs defensive tackle Gracen Halton after OU beat Alabama in November. | David Leong-Imagn Images

There are always special circumstances with each game.

For example, Clemson played that first game without No. 1 overall draft pick Trevor Lawrence at quarterback. In ’07, Mizzou was ranked No. 1 the second time OU throttled them in the Alamodome and Oklahoma was trying to make a statement to get back into the discussion for a spot in the 1-2 matchup for the national championship (two-loss LSU got the bid instead, then won the second of the SEC’s seven straight national titles).

This time, the Sooners won in Tuscaloosa because the OU defense ravaged Bama with three takeaways and shut down the Tide’s running game.

Alabama mounted 406 yards of offense but OU came away with a 23-21 victory.

None of which matters when they play again in 12 days.

Or does it?

Do coaches have to avoid the temptation of overthinking things? Preparing too much? Paralysis by analysis?

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You know the bit: “They know we’re gonna do this, and we know that they know we’re gonna do this, and they know that we know that they know that we’re gonna do this…”

In soccer, it’s penalty kicks: “Does he like to go to his right side or his left … or up the middle?”

In baseball, it’s two-strike pitches: “He’s been chasing the curve all day; do I want to throw him another one or should I bring the heater?”

Don’t overthink it, Venables said. What worked before doesn’t guarantee it’ll work again … but do you really want to risk getting away from what worked before?

Clearly, that kind of thinking has benefited him in the past.

“Yeah, this is a game of execution,” Venables said. “This is a game of physicality. They're going to know your DNA, and it still comes down to executing either side of the ball. And so let's get better at what we do. You know? I think that's what the message to our guys is. Improving. And that's a real thing, you know? You do that through intentionality, through a lot of self-analysis and evaluation.”

Venables also said players have to be able to accept criticism when they lose — but also when they win.

“I think that's incredibly important that you have honest — even through victory — you have honest conversations with each other,” he said. “Sometimes everybody wants to celebrate, and I gotta walk in the room and then be real and honest with people: ‘OK, hey, we won the game. … And hey, fantastic. You did this well, you did this well, you did this well. That's why we won the game. But these are the things that allowed this game to stay close and in question until the end.’ “

Seems like he just had that very same talk with his players recently … in a road victory … in which they rushed for just 74 yards, threw for only 138, but didn’t make any catastrophic offensive errors, got great special teams play, a trio of aggressive turnovers by the defense and had to make plays at the end to secure the win.

Oh yeah, at Alabama.

Afterward, Venables applauded their fight and appreciated the win, but also reminded them of all that had gone wrong — plays that could have made the outcome a lot more comfortable.

“So where's that balance at, you know? So that it doesn't fall on deaf ears,” he said. “And then you put together a plan as a staff that helps your players get a little bit — just, again, incrementally — a little bit better at all these different spots.

“And you can't get better at everything this late in the season. But you can get everybody — every player, every coach, every unit, every scheme, can be a little bit better if you're looking for it. That's going to be — it was last week, and moving into this week — our focus.”