Jim Nagy 'Doing a Great Job' Working With Oklahoma's Brent Venables to Attack Transfer Portal

NORMAN — The working relationship between Oklahoma coach Brent Venables and general manager Jim Nagy is about to take an important step.

Nagy was hired in February to build an NFL-style front office in Norman.

Thus far, he’s been hard at work evaluating OU’s roster and building out his operation.

But with the spring transfer portal window now open, Venables and Nagy can begin collaborating to put the final touches on the Sooners’ 2025 roster.

The focus thus far has been developing the current crop of OU players throughout spring practice, but Venables has enjoyed working with Nagy so far.

“I think he’s spending a lot of time building trust and relationships with guys in the locker room. That’s really important,” Venables said after the Crimson Combine last Saturday. “And then the (coaching) staff is learning the process, the new evaluation process, what that’s going to look like. The alignment, the communication — there’s so many systems and things of that nature the everybody’s getting familiar with.

“But he’s doing a great job of being in a million places at once and putting the focus on the 26 class, our current roster and got a transfer portal that’s getting ready to open up and address whatever needs that may come from there. Finding any, if there are any, holes, making sure that whoever it is that comes in, if anybody, that they can make us better.”

Nagy will have many new challenges to navigate as he translates his NFL scouting experience and years running the Senior Bowl to Norman. Attacking the transfer portal and scouting players who already have a track record in college football is the phase of the offseason he identified as the skillset that will have the most carryover from his NFL days.

“I think any time you're evaluating a college player compared to a high school player, there's less projection,” Nagy said last month. “So to me, that's easier… That's why we're going to attack the portal. There's good players. Theres a lot of examples. There's a handful of schools out there the last couple of years that have done great work in the portal and people have asked me what's what breakdown going to be?

“I can't answer that because it's just like every draft has different strengths… every year in the portal's going to be different in my opinion.”

Venables still wants Oklahoma to prioritize high school recruiting as a core tenet of the program.

“You want to develop a locker room that has continuity, consistency, stability. That’s healthy to be successful,” Venables said. “I think if you look at our roster and the numbers we signed each year, it’s gone. That’s ideally what you want. You’re going to have some fluidity, that’s just the nature of where we’re at today. But you want guys that are sprinkled throughout your roster that have been here 3, 4, 5 years.

“… I think that’s a philosophy that we all believe in from a continuity standpoint. But the front office is there to try to be your headlights and be proactive and to anticipate and to have on-hand management when it comes to again the fluidity and the ability to adapt and pivot at any step along the way.”

And the Sooners have shown their not afraid to strike with Nagy in the fold.

Tuesday, Oklahoma landed a pair of coveted players out of the portal.

OU announced the signing of veteran California running back Jaydn Ott and Stanford interior offensive lineman Jake Maikkula.

Venables and Nagy will continue to be aggressive throughout the rest of April.

“Probably every position on your team, you can say, we can use another guy there. We really could,” Venables said. “So we have our priorities.

“… If we find anybody that can meet the needs and make us better immediately, can make a difference, where we might need some help. So we’ll look at everything and see what’s available.”