Brent Venables Took His Lone Shot to Hit the Reset Button This Spring at Oklahoma
NORMAN — Saturday’s spectacle closed the book on Brent Venables’ first spring practice as Oklahoma’s head coach.
Sooner fans showed out for the annual spring scrimmage after months of Venables himself campaigning to Pack the Palace, a massive show of support for the new regime in Norman.
And while the 75,360 fans gathered inside Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium were treated to a competitive contest, Venables said he was most proud of the effort of his players, regardless of what happened between the white lines.
“What a wonderful day. Couldn't have scripted it any better,” Venables said after the game. “… I'm pleased with the mindset of our guys. Not being casual, not being nonchalant (with) every opportunity that we have to go to practice, go to meetings — we've just got to have the right mindset, and our guys have bought into that.”
The buy-in from the players has been a constant theme throughout spring practice.
Both sides of the football have slogged through installing new playbooks, and the return of strength coach Jerry Schmidt is supposed to bring a level of toughness back to the program.
And though life is completely different under the new coaching staff, the players appear to have embraced the challenge wholeheartedly.
Establishing a new culture of being detail-oriented and having plenty of accountability when there are mistakes has been Venables’ No. 1 priority this spring, something that he stressed needed to be done right from the jump.
“I'm focused on building the program the right way,” Venables said. “If we let the toothpaste out of the tube, we can't get it back in. So we can't miss.
“There's one time to do it the first time, do it right the first time. We get one chance as a staff.”
Throughout Saturday’s scrimmage, Venables stood behind the offense, looking to correct any mistake he saw. He directed his defense to get into position, pulling them over after plays to hand them coaching points before the next play.
Brent Venables actively coached his defense on the field during Oklahoma's Spring Game on Saturday
Kevin Jairaj / USA TODAY Sports
But he was also looking for lapses in effort on both sides of the ball, things as small as a player walking off the field.
“We're looking for both the good and the bad,” Venables said. “We're hunting for the bad, looking for somebody to do something wrong. We don't want to have an, 'Aha, caught ya,' but we're trying to fix things.”
Venables said after the game he couldn’t find any examples of players loafing off the field, but he did see signs of the culture he’s been trying to foster throughout the weekend.
It started well before any of the fans arrived on Saturday, as the team gathered to make sure they would be as prepared as possible for the scrimmage.
“(The team) called a player-only walk-through this morning,” Venables said. “Who does that on the spring game? We did.”
Quarterback Dillon Gabriel and wide receiver Marvin Mims were even late getting back on the field for the second half because they were looking after the locker room.
“Two of our best players in there cleaning up the locker room, throwing away trash,” Venables said. “It's like, 'Coach, you said,' but it's time to play. That's when you know the seed is taking root.”
There’s still plenty of improvement the team needs to make over the summer and in fall camp before the 2022 season kicks off this fall. Nobody inside the program is shying away from that.
Gabriel said it after the spring game.
Bill Bedenbaugh echoed the sentiment last week, stressing the need for his offensive line to keep developing over the summer.
Venables took his one chance to set the tone this spring, however, and now the program has a solid foundation to continue to grow and try and close the gap on college football’s elite.
“We've made plenty of mistakes, probably, along the way, but I know the needle is continuing to move in the right direction,” Venables said. “Some of it is definitely not apparent to the naked eye, if you will, but it is for us that are here in the weeds every day.”
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