Oklahoma's Brent Venables, Texas' Steve Sarkisian at the Center of Red River Rivalry

Brent Venables tried to downplay the matchup.

“At the end of the day, it’s about the players,” Venables said earlier in the week.

But Saturday’s Oklahoma-Texas showdown in the Cotton Bowl (2:30 p.m., ABC) is also very much about Venables and Steve Sarkisian.

Venables is the defensive mastermind, having engineered the Sooners’ high-level defenses from 1999-2011 and continuing his strong track record at Clemson from 2012-21.

He won three national championships as a defensive coordinator — 2000 at OU and 2016 and 2018 at Clemson.

Sarkisian has had plenty of success as well, serving as USC’s quarterbacks coach during its 2003 title run and was Alabama’s offensive coordinator during its 2020 title run.

Sarkisian remains Texas’ offensive play-caller, while Venables took back over play-calling duties on defense this offseason after the departure of Zac Alley to West Virginia.

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So Saturday’s game will be a rare college football matchup where the head coaches are calling plays against each other.

Venables kept trying to brush off the matchup.

“The schemes and whatnot that both programs run are only as good as the players that are out on the field executing it,” Venables said. “So it’ll come down to that, it’s a player’s game.”

Venables’ defense puts plenty of stress on offenses, from exotic blitz looks to disguised coverages and plenty of other wrinkles.

“Coach Venables, you can see his footprint, his handprint all over this defense,” Sarkisian said. “He’s recruited players that fit his style. They’re very active up front. Very athletic group. Multitude of pressures, multitude of coverages. I think they lead the SECin about everything. … We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Venables has also continued to evolve as a head coach beyond just the defensive aspect.

Whether it was due to then-offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby or not, Venables was ultimately responsible for the Sooners’ struggles with clock-management early in his head-coaching tenure.

Venables and Ben Arbuckle, though, have had success in the area — most notably late in the win over Michigan earlier this season.

Brent Venables, Oklahoma — Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables argues a call in the first half of the college football game between OU and Michigan on Sept. 6. | SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Sarkisian has also had his moments of struggle in the area, including in the eventual double-overtime victory over Arizona State in last season’s College Football Playoff quarterfinals, he’s mostly shown a firm grasp on game-management.

Sarkisian’s biggest struggles have been in developing a cohesive culture. While those issues mostly went away in 2023 when the Longhorns won 12 games and last season when they finished 13-3, they’ve reared up again after this season’s 3-2 start.

“Probably wouldn’t be fair to these guys to say, you know, our culture is perfect right now,” Sarkisian said this week. They’re all — they’re due to do the right things. … They came in, they were coachable. They took to the tough coaching from Saturday.

“So their mindset is all there, so that tells me the culture’s right. But at the end of the day, we got to play together as a team Saturday.”

Those questions generally haven’t lingered about Venables, even during their two 6-7 seasons during his tenure.

“There’s a lot of things that people don’t see on the outside that’s hard to see on the inside,” linebacker Kobie McKinzie told Sooners on SI earlier this season. “For Coach V and how he is criticized so much on wins and losses, he’s built the program up and I’ve seen it with my eyes every year, every day, in and out. I’m proud of Coach V. It’s not easy to do, but that man is always the same dude, he truly is. To have a leader like that and to have somebody to look up to like that, every day, who’s the same person. You just want to live up to that and he keeps everybody up around him.

“He’s the kind that makes everybody around him better.”