How Brent Venables Plans to Name Oklahoma's Captains in 2022
NORMAN — As the 2022 season rapidly approaches, Brent Venables will oversee another task as a first-time head coach — selecting team captains.
Venables is the first person to note just how much turnover the Oklahoma roster has undergone since the Alamo Bowl.
“Forty percent of our roster will have never put on a Sooner jersey in a game before until this fall,” Venables said at Big 12 Media Days this past July. “So 33 scholarship players and 15 walk-ons, 15 of those guys, two of them were walk-ons and 13 scholarship are the transfers.
“But with those, we have 243 starts out of those 15 transfers, 444 games played, because I know a lot will be and has been made of how much we lost on both sides of the ball from a production standpoint.”
With so many new faces, Venables said he’s going to put an emphasis on those who have been in Norman for the long haul when it came to the captain selection process.
“Those will be older guys,” he said after practice on Tuesday. “I believe in promoting older guys who have been here. They’ve paid a price.
“It means a little more something to them. Being a senior should be a big deal. Needs to be a big deal. We’re going to honor that and recognize that.”
Last year, four of Oklahoma’s five captains were seniors.
Jeremiah Hall, Pat Fields, Caleb Kelly and Isaiah Thomas all were named as leaders of the team alongside redshirt sophomore quarterback Spencer Rattler.
All five of last year’s captains have since moved on, though Kelly is still with the program as a member of the S.O.U.L. Mission, so there will be a bevy of new faces representing the team at the coin toss this year.
While the decision will ultimately be decided via a team vote, Venables said there will be an emphasis on lifting up those veteran leaders once again this season.
“You have to earn it through your body of work,” Venables said. “You can probably pick out a handful of them right now. We’ll do that as we get closer to game week.”
Want to join the discussion? Click here to become a member of the AllSooners message board community today!
Sign up for your premium membership to AllSooners.com today, and get access to the entire Fan Nation premium network!
Follow AllSooners on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest OU news.
