Brent Venables Outlines How Oklahoma Spent Its Bye Week

The Sooners have a massive stretch ahead following their second bye week, starting with a road trip to No. 4 Alabama.

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables looks on during the Sooners' win over Tennessee. | Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NORMAN — Oklahoma made the most of its second bye week. 

The Sooners landed at No. 12 in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the year following their 33-27 win over No. 25 Tennessee at Neyland Stadium. 

Brent Venables said the coaching staff frontloaded the workload this week ahead of next week’s preparations to take on No. 4 Alabama. 

“We're finished tomorrow. So we've got an early morning practice tomorrow and meetings,” Venables said on Wednesday night. “… It's been a good week. We had meetings, lots of meetings. Lots of weight room stuff.”

The Sooners were able to balance making internal improvements while getting an early peek at the Crimson Tide. 

“Had a great practice today,” Venables said. “Really good, physical practice. Full pad practice, and we'll be in shells tomorrow. Get some really good good-on-good work. A lot of work on ourselves. Scheme, fundamentals. A little bit of work on opponent prep, but really focusing on ourselves. Getting guys healthy and it's been a good week. And they'll have the weekend off.”

OU’s second bye week comes ahead of a massive November stretch. 

The trip to Tuscaloosa marks Oklahoma’s final road trip of the regular season. 

Then, the Sooners will host No. 22 Missouri and LSU in Norman, as each team has had its own unique issues over the last month. 

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Missouri quarterback Beau Pribula sustained an ankle injury against Vanderbilt, and LSU dismissed coach Brian Kelly following an embarrassing loss to Texas A&M.

If the Sooners win out, not only will they be in the CFP, but they’ll likely host a playoff game in Norman. 

Venables was initially dubious of a second open date, but he said that he’s actually enjoyed the chance to work through another bye week. 

“Never would have thought that in the past but I think everybody, player, coach, everybody — it doesn't feel like it prolongs the season,” Venables said. “You feel like it comes at the right time, so you can kind of regroup and again, everything I just said. You can really take an opportunity to focus on the teams to improve your football team so you can play your best football here in November.”

The program was also able to help the current OU players get ahead in setting up life after football this week. 

“(We) had a career fair for the team,” Venables said. “We had about 30 Fortune 500 companies here that guys are networking with. Did that some yesterday afternoon.”

OU will be back on a normal game week schedule starting on Sunday. 

The Sooners will take on Alabama at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 15, and the game will air on ABC.