Brent Venables: Oklahoma Must Run 'a Hell of a lot Better' to Achieve Goals

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables hasn't held back when discussing the importance of the Sooners need for improvement in the running game.

That certainly continued to be the case Monday when Venables took the podium at SEC Media Days in Tampa, Fla.

"At the end of the day, for us to be who we want to be, the vision that we have, we have to run the ball a hell of a lot better than we have the past couple of years," Venables said.

Venables was the first coach up on the opening day of SEC Media Days, following shortly behind commissioner Greg Sankey.

The Sooners finished 10-3 last season, making the College Football Playoff for the first time under Venables, but struggled to move the ball on the ground, averaging just 118.5 rushing yards per game.

That was Oklahoma's lowest average since 2001, and the program's fourth-lowest total since 1937.

"For us to be a championship team, for us to be in that conversation at the end of the year, we've got to be a whole heck of a lot better," Venables said. "It puts tremendous pressure on every part of your team when you can't consistently run the football.

"Fortunately for us a year ago, guys stepped up at times and were a big part of helping us win."

Tory Blaylock led the Sooners in rushing as a freshman, though he finished with just 480 yards on 120 carries. Quarterback John Mateer ran for 431 yards and a team-high eight rushing touchdowns, while Xavier Robinson rushed for 421 yards.

All three of those players return.

Robinson and Blaylock figure to be the most likely to lead the way among the group, though they did add Lloyd Avant from Colorado State, and freshman Jonathan Hatton Jr. figures to have a chance to see the field early.

Venables was asked whether the running game had "taken a backseat" to passing offenses recently, with the questioner pointing out that Oklahoma, Alabama and Texas all struggled to produce consistent success on the ground last season in the SEC.

"I think there potentially could be something to that," Venables said. "I don't want to get into all the minutiae in that regard. Certainly you named three teams that have been used to running the ball incredibly well over the history of time and not doing it well (last year), lots of reasons for that. ...

"We've got to be more aggressive, we've got to be more physical, we've got to be better technically sound, we've got to have all the right schemes, we've got to have belief, we've got to have the toughness that goes along with that. "

Of course, it's not just the running backs that must improve for OU's ground game to have more success.

"We've transformed the, really, the wide receiver and the tight end room, we've got five really good backs, up front we probably have nine guys that can play winning football for us right now," Venables said. "... I'm really excited about what Jim Nagy, our front office have helped us do to transform that side of the football. We're going to be a lot better around our quarterback."

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