To Brent Venables, Oklahoma CB Joshua Eaton is Now 'Serious About His Future'
The general consensus on Oklahoma’s cornerback picture has been that OU has two experienced, dynamic, reliable playmakers in Woodi Washington and D.J. Graham, and anyone else is a backup.
But to hear Brent Venables tell it, there may be an unexpected candidate at the position who asserts himself for playing time in 2022.
“I love a guy like Josh Eaton,” Venables said.
The Sooners’ first-year head coach expressed his appreciation for the Sooners’ junior cornerback during a press conference last week at Big 12 Media Days in Arlington, TX.
The query was about the corner group in general and the luxury of having two guys back who Venables knows he can trust at the position.
But Venables happily offered up an exploration of Eaton’s journey so far in Norman.
“If you said, ‘OK, what was my 10,000-foot view of Josh?’ — and I've shared this with him and his family: like, he was just too silly,” Venables said. “He wasn't serious about his future. You know, great kid. You know, fun to be around. But wasn't focused and serious about being great. And he'll be the first one to tell you that.”
The 6-foot-1, 182-pound Eaton came to OU as a consensus 4-star recruit out of Aldine MacArthur High School in Houston. ESPN ranked him as the No. 25 cornerback in the 2020 class, while Rivals had him No. 3 and 247 Sports ranked him 33rd. When Eaton chose the Sooners over Georgia, LSU, Texas and others, OU fans figured he was an instant star — and certainly a multi-year starter.
Instead, Eaton played in just five games as a true freshman and then made it into 10 games as a sophomore. In two seasons, he has a grand total of seven tackles and has yet to make a play on the football.
But Venables and new cornerbacks coach Jay Valai may be just what Eaton needed to ignite his career.
“Man, I've seen this great growth,” Venables said, “and hopefully, you know, it'll come to fruition from getting an opportunity to play and contribute. I've seen tremendous growth, just in his mindset, in his buy-in — and this leads to his work, and then it leads to his production, and then it leads to the trust, and then, now next to that, the teammates start believing him. Now he's walking around with a little edge and a swag.”
Venables and his staff have invested themselves personally in the players they only recently met. Not that the previous coaches didn’t invest, but players say they’re connecting on a more personal level now than they did before.
Maybe someone who was “silly” just needed someone to tell him it was OK to be serious.
“You get that confidence from the work that you put in,” Venables said. “And I don’t want any of our guys walking around with false bravado. Like, ‘We OU,’ or whatever that means. I don't buy that. You know, your confidence and the edge and swag comes from the work that you put in and the scars that you got.”
Oklahoma’s defensive backs have accumulated plenty of scars in recent years. Ex-defensive coordinator Alex Grinch used to talk about the scars players in the secondary had when he was hired.
Now, though, maybe those scars are truly healing.
“Man, I've been so excited about that group,” Venables said. “And the depth that we've added. But I'm equally excited about guys that are here that are earning their way. Like, just a few seeds of belief, man, what that can do to people. You can speak life and death. The power of the tongue is a very real thing, and speaking positivity and great results into these guys and helping create a vision for them is a very real thing.
“Getting the buy-in and confidence, all those things, got to get them to the right place. We’ve been saying like, ‘How you think, that's going to determine whether or not you're going to be successful.’ So (it’s about) getting our guys confident in themselves, in the scheme, in their fundamentals and their technique and their skill, and then and then asking them to do things that they can do well.”
