Oklahoma's Brent Venables Gives Update on David Stone Ahead of Georgia Matchup

NORMAN — Coming off a disappointing performance in Oklahoma's 14-6 win over New Mexico, and with No. 2 Georgia awaiting the Sooners on Saturday, Sooners coach Brent Venables held his weekly press conference Tuesday.

Venables spent plenty of time talking about the challenge of playing the Bulldogs, David Stone's injury, the depth behind him, the offensive struggles of the last two games and what can be done to fix those issues.

Venables addressed Stone's injury before taking questions.

"I know it was reported that he was hurt last night at practice," Venables said. "He wasn't on offense. I guess that was out there that he was on offense, but he wasn't on offense. He got banged up. He ran his knee into a scout-team player in a jog-through, and it kind of popped out. We'll see where he's at."

Venables said the initial read of the X-rays of Stone's injury were encouraging.

"He said his pain was about a two out of 10 right now, so we'll kind of go from there," Venables said.

The Sooners will have their first SEC Availability Report of the season Wednesday night, though when asked about a potential timeline for Stone's return, said "if at all" when talking about how much time Stone could miss.

Venables had an energetic, focused, forceful tone that was much different than what he projected last week coming off a 17-10 loss to Michigan.

Here's a few more takeaways from Venables' press conference:

Defensive Line Depth Behind Stone Improving

The Sooners came into the season with two strong starters on the interior of the defensive line but planty of questions behind Stone and Jayden Jackson.

That's a big reason why Oklahoma added Danny Saili and Braxton Fely to the roster late when the opportunity arose.

"I feel better three weeks in going on Game Four than I did coming out of camp," Venables said. "You just got to go do it. There's some signs that guys are getting better, and so we've got out depth OK there. Great opportunity. If David is unavailable this week, we're going to need some guys to step up and play big and play with heavy hands and great pad level and striking people."

Other than Saili and Fely, options there include Trent Wilson, Bishop Thomas and Nigel Smith II.

"I know Jayden has been playing really good as well," Venables said. "I feel good about that group of guys."

Brent Venables: OL Play, Turnovers Killing the Offense

Venables said that while the offensive problems have showed up in plenty of ways, there were two key issues slowing down the Sooners.

"Probably just the inconsistency on offensive line and not being able to take care of the ball." Venables said.

While Venables brought up John Mateer's first-drive interception against New Mexico, he focused more on the play right before the turnover.

"We got a well-designed quarterback run on play two," Venables said.

On second-and-nine, Mateer was stopped for a 1-yard gain, a play that Venables said at the very least should've been a first-down run. Instead, the Sooners were in third-and-long and Mateer put the ball in a bad spot and turned the ball over.

"We have a 6-7 tight end on a spin-down safety and we don't block him," Venables said. "That's a problem. That shouldn't happen.

"We can't have those kind of busts and not get into any kind of a rhythm."

Venables has Plenty of Admiration for Kirby Smart

Venables said that he's had a relationship with Georgia coach Kirby Smart going back to when Smart was LSU's defensive backs coach in 2004 under Nick Saban. That was Smart's first full-time FBS coaching gig.

That bond strengthened when Smart was on Saban's staff at Alabama in 2008 when Florida beat the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship Game and the Sooners — with Venables as defensive coordinator — prepared to face the Gators in the BCS National Championship Game.

"Coach Saban was on a tirade about these three-back offenses and all the option with his defensive acument and he was just pissed off at the world because of the option," Venables said. "It was hard to defense with what Urban Meyer was doing."

Smart and Venables have remained in touch since then.

"The way youo become a great coach is that you learn from other people," Venables said. "There's some shared philosophis and values, probably the biggest similarity is that we want to play the gae a certain way. How you do what you do as much as anything. He's bee at the top of the food chain for a long time."

Quote of the Day: Venables on Georgia RB Nate Frazier

"Man he’s a dude. Great player. Our guys are going to have to bring it. He runs through people through their soul over and over and over," Venables said.

Frazier has 202 yards and five touchdowns through three games, averaging 8.4 yards per carry.

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