How Brent Venables Wants to Make Preparation a "Competitive Advantage" for Oklahoma

Despite building excitement for game week, Brent Venables doesn't want his team to lose sight of where the real improvements are made.

Eight more days.

That’s all that remains until Brent Venables makes his head coaching debut at Oklahoma against the UTEP Miners.

As fall camp wraps up and the Sooners turn the page to game week, the excitement is palpable.

Since the Alamo Bowl, OU has been confined to the practice field, going up against one another.

Now, as the team prepares to finally hit somebody else, Venables doesn’t want his program to lose sight of where the real improvements are made — on the practice field.

“It’s everything. It really is,” Venables said after practice on Thursday night. “This game will punish you, expose you for what you do out here on the practice field for how you sleep, how you eat, how you train, how you recover, how you handle yourself in the community.

“It’s all preparing, a year-round process. It’s not just for this week. You’re building your season every day. Trying to develop and build great habits that are going to sustain you under stress and duress.”

The entire offseason of preparation has been geared toward Sept. 3, but Venables knows the season opener is merely the first step in a long process to get his team where they want to be in December.

Even the best performance against UTEP will only be a starting point for the 2022 Sooners, something Venables is stressing to both the coaching staff and the team.

“This game will punish you for trying to cheat the game and cut corners,” Venables said. “Not being detailed and precise in everything you do. The practice field needs to become a competitive advantage for the Oklahoma Sooners. How we approach it, how we attack it and how we respond to heat, to soreness, to the mundane, we have to embrace it.

“That’s how we’re going to get ready for next week. We’ve been working on that for the last several months. Help our guys mature and grow up and understand champions behave like champions before they ever become champions. Your habits matter. How you think matters. How you respond matters.”

Ever the over-preparer, Venables has surely had his first game week as the head coach of the Sooners scripted out for some time.

But nearly three decades of coaching experience has told Venables that he needs to be ready to think on the fly and adjust to the needs of his team, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get the best out of his group for four quarters come next Saturday.

“We have an exact schedule,” he said, “… but just getting a good feel – even though it’s on your script – having the willingness to make a hard left-hand turn. OK, we were going to be in pads today. Let’s take the pads off. Even if it’s just a placebo effect. If it works, it works.

“It’s been a good, tough camp. A very productive camp. You want your guys feeling great, confident, and fresh mentally and physically as we go into the season.”

Last week, Venables said he was pleased with the progress of the team, though there were still steps to take before taking the field for the first contest.

Now, the new head coach is amped up and ready to see how the Sooners react to their first test of the season.

“I couldn’t feel more excited about where our team is,” said Venables, “their attitude, their toughness, the improvement we’ve seen them make, the confidence that they have – they are a very unified football team.

“They like to work. They love the investment part of it.”

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