Rhett Bomar, Other Situations Prepared Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables

NORMAN — Brent Venables is ready for his new role as the final decision maker at Oklahoma.

All of the program-altering decisions in Norman will make a final stop on the first-year head coach’s desk, something he’s ready to embrace.

In fact, Venables said he thinks those situations can be very simple if you follow one guiding principle: do the right thing.

“You can still win at the highest level and do it the right way,” Venables said during a press conference on Monday.

But in his 29-year career as an assistant to this point, he’s sat on the other side of the table in those meetings plenty of times.

One such moment came in 2006.

In August, Bob Stoops made the decision to dismiss Rhett Bomar from the program. The move sent shockwaves through the program, as Bomar was the returning starting quarterback and appeared to be poised to build on his 2005 season.

“I recruited Rhett Bomar and that goes down,” Venables said. “First day coming back. Had no idea that Rhett Bomar is no longer gonna be here.

“… And I was like, ‘Whoooaaa ... ! Three years recruiting this guy… Hold on. Uh… Can’t we just suspend him a couple games?’ And you know which games I was thinking.”

Stoops didn’t waiver. He instead explained to Venables that Bomar had opportunities to come clean about the situation, and because he didn’t, Stoops was going to stick with his decision to remove the quarterback from the roster all together.

“What a great example that was for me at that young time,” Venables said.

Years later, he bore witness to a similar scenario.

This time at Clemson, the Tigers were slated to open the season against Auburn in Atlanta.

“I guess Clemson at the time thought, ‘We can’t beat anybody in Atlanta. There’s some curse in Atlanta,’” Venables said. “Like, ‘Clemson can’t win in Atlanta.’ I was like, ‘Why does everybody say that? That doesn’t have to be true.’ But everybody thought it was true.”

As Clemson emerged from fall camp, Dabo Swinney announced to his coaching staff he would be suspending star wide receive Sammy Watkins for the contest,

“Here I am again, same spot,” Venables said. “I’m raising my hand. He didn’t get arrested or anything else, he got caught in a bad situation where he happened to be there.

“I’m like, ‘We’re gonna suspend this guy for that? C’mon now. How ‘bout the next week?’ We were playing Ball State or somebody. But Coach stuck with his guns.”

Clemson won the game 26-19, and DeAndre Hopkins set a school record with 13 receptions in Watkins’ absence.

“It was just another affirmation for me,” Venables said. “Like, ‘I’m trying to help this guy.’ He was suspended for, like, three games. And we won anyway.

“… So it was just a lesson for me. I’ve got countless examples like that. I’m telling you, I was on the wrong side of it. It’s easy when you’re sitting over there as an assistant.”

Neither Stoops nor Lincoln Riley took over the OU program with the wealth of experience Venables brings to the table as an assistant.

And Venables said his mistakes and “scars” along the way as a linebacker coach and a defensive coordinator have prepared him for every challenge he’s set to face at Oklahoma.

“I’m not going to be perfect,” Venables said. “I can tell you right now. There’s no perfect person in this program. There’s going to be some mistakes made. Hopefully they’ll respond the right way when those things happen.

“… I’ve had that happen my whole career. My wife reminds me all the time.”

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