Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables Has Done Exactly What He Promised

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After the private jet had delivered a new conquering hero to Norman deep into the night, after his 2 a.m. wait in the drive-thru line at Whataburger, after a quick morning jog around his old neighborhood, Brent Venables wanted to make one thing clear to Oklahoma fans.

Sooner Football was going to look very different.

Sam Bradford? Go talk to the statue. Landry Jones? Gotta be a record book around here somewhere. Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray? When you’re finished at their statues, go catch them on Sunday. Jalen Hurts? Yeah, NFL.

Caleb Williams? Well. …

Sorry, quarterbacks. Whether it’s 2001 or 2021, Venables’ first emphasis, always, would be on defense.

That was the side of the football at OU that had been in decay for some 12 years. The Sooners’ NCAA team defense rankings plummeting into the 100s every year while the offense was leading the nation in this or that had become like a pair of old sneakers: tattered, smelly, gross, actually, something you didn’t want anyone to see, but yet easy and familiar, comfortable even. Complacent.

Now, it is that very same Oklahoma defense that has placed the Sooners right back in the forefront of the College Football Playoff discussion.

Lose to LSU at Owen Field on Saturday, and it’s back to the Random Corporation Bowl. But beat the Tigers, and Sooner Nation will be buying up playoff tickets for mid-December — most likely the first home playoff game in school history.

Venables has done exactly what he promised he was going to do four years ago — almost to the day; Dec. 6, 2021:

“We will employ a fast, exciting, explosive and diverse offense, combined with a physical, punishing, relentless, suffocating defense,” Venables told the crowd gathered inside the Everest Training Center.

Predictably, the offense part happened first with Jeff Lebby, Dillon Gabriel and others fitting in with some of Lincoln Riley’s leftover parts.

But even Venables knew the defense part would take time.

Four years in, it’s happened. What sounded like a fantasy has become reality. And while the OU offense has taken a giant step back, Venables’ most recent counterparts would certainly agree about the defense.

On Nov. 1, Venables brought his defense to Knoxville to take on No. 14-ranked Tennessee. The Sooners prevailed 33-27 by shutting down the Vols’ ground game (63 rushing yards, just 1.8 per carry) and by taking away the football (two interceptions and a fumble).

On Nov. 15, Venables took the Sooner D to Tuscaloosa to face No. 4 Alabama. OU won 23-21 by shutting down the Tide’s ground game (80 yards rushing, just 2.4 per carry) and by taking away the football (one interception, two fumbles).

On Saturday, Venables and that defense welcomed No. 22 Missouri to Norman. Oklahoma triumphed 17-6 by shutting down the Tigers’ ground game (70 yards rushing, just 2.0 per carry) and by taking away the football (two interceptions).

If that’s not physical, punishing, relentless and suffocating, then such a thing doesn’t exist.

“One, they're good up front against the run,” Tennessee coach Josh Huepel said. “ … Ultimately, didn't handle it well enough. You know, the turnovers are uncharacteristic, and they turned into points. And that's a double whammy right there. Give credit to them.”

“They’re very good against the run,” Bama coach Kalen DeBoer agreed. “ … With the pressure they brought, (the quarterback has) got to get rid of (the football) and be OK with throwing it away. With the blitz they had, you’re gonna get overwhelmed.”

“They're very stout in the run game,” LSU interim coach Frank Wilson echoed Monday, “as you saw with the (SEC’s) leading rushing team in Missouri, and their back (Ahmad Hardy) was held to 57 yards or so after coming off a 300-yard game there. They're pretty stingy when it comes to their defensive front, and they're pretty nasty on the back end as well, as they contest passes.”

Before bringing Mizzou to Memorial Stadium for their 19th loss in a row dating back to 1966, Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz said he could appreciate how far OU’s defense has come in Venables’ short time — especially this season.

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“Coach Venables is to be commended,” Drinkwitz said. “I think he's doing an outstanding job. Obviously, him taking over the defensive side of the ball and calling the defense, you can tell his aggressive nature and style is on display.”

LSU has never played at Oklahoma. Coming on the heels of OU’s three-game winning streak — a tough stretch that many predicted the Sooners could go 1-3 or even 0-4 before the season began — the Tigers head to Norman as a 10 1/2-point underdog.

“I think they're talented. I think they have depth,” Wilson said. “ … A lot of it is with the guys they had from a year ago, and they got better with the personnel that they have.”

Heupel acknowledged after losing to his alma mater at Neyland Stadium that Venables brought some new defensive wrinkles.

Of course he did. He was Bob Stoops’ second lieutenant when Heupel was a player, and first lieutenant when Heupel was an OU assistant.

“Some of it was different, you know,” Heupel said. “Some of the pressures were a little bit different.”

In assessing Venables before the game, DeBoer went beyond just Xs and Os.

“Coach Venables has done an amazing job instilling the culture there,” he said. “And you know, we got a team that is coming here hungry. They're in the hunt for a lot of different things, as far as reaching their goals.”

One of those goals is to win 10 games. Venables did that in his second season, 2023, but that was sandwiched between a pair of failed 6-7 seasons.

The Oklahoma defense was infinitely better in 2023 than it was in his first year, and it was that much better in 2024. In 2025, Venables’ defense has made another enormous leap forward.

“It's a tall task,” Wilson said.

Wilson said one of the hallmarks of Venables’ defenses is their ability to morph — not just over a season or during a game, but within one possession. He changes fronts, swaps out linebackers, rolls in cornerbacks effortlessly.

And four years in, his players now speak the same language.

Adding an extra defensive lineman last week against Missouri, for instance — Venables calls it a “bear” front, in which four players have a hand down with a noseguard over the center, two 3-techniques shade the guards, one d-end is crouched to the strong side and another edge rusher is standing up — helped stifle Hardy, the nation’s leading rusher, and the Tigers’ vaunted rushing attack.

At Tennessee and Tuscaloosa, Venables filled some of those roles with cheetah linebacker Kendal Daniels, or safety Reggie Powers. Versatility is key — but even Venables can only use 11 players at a time.

“It's not so spectacular that they're going to do something that's unusual,” Wilson said.

At his weekly press conference Tuesday, Venables reiterated his stance on what he thought was always possible at OU, and why, instead of hiring someone else to coordinate the defense after Zac Alley left for West Virginia, he decided to just do it himself.

“Well, you've always put that pressure on yourself as a coach, that everything rides on your position or your unit’s ability to produce. That's who I've always been. And the staffs that I've been on hold the same type of philosophy, mindset, attitude.

“For me, I wanted the responsibility. I didn’t want anyone else in the building to feel the pressure of that. … I carry the weight of that, and I get that. I have clear vision for that. But I didn’t want anybody else to have to show up every day and carry that burden. I wanted to carry it. It’s my responsibility. And that’s, again, something that I’ve cut my teeth on. It’s why I was hired. And so I had confidence in our roster and confidence in our staff to play at the level that we’re playing at.”

Whether it was due to making clever personnel changes at key moments or disguising how he wants to attack or simply taking it “down to the studs,” like he said a lot in 2022, and establishing a new, defensive minded-culture, Venables also deflected the credit for resurrecting a once-proud Oklahoma defense and restoring the roar in Norman.

“Again, the credit goes to the players,” he said. “They’re the ones that are putting in the time, straining, knocking people back, getting off the ball, chasing with incredible passion and pursuit and physicality.

“And then our staff … it truly is a collaboration, from Sunday when we get together, we wrap up postgame analysis from last week's game. … I’ve been in staff rooms where there’s not the collaboration, there’s not the synergy, there’s not the depth of vision and understanding at both the front end and the back end.”

“We got a great group that are bought in and have worked really hard, both player and coach alike. I’m incredibly thankful for them.”