Venables Vibes: Oklahoma's Brent Venables Gives QB Update, Says no 'Magic' Fix for Defense

NORMAN — Brent Venables raised his energy levels in his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

The Sooners (3-3) are in the midst of a three-game skid after dropping their second straight game by more than 30 points for the first time in program history.

With the season at a crossroads, Venables doubled down on continuing to trust the preparation in practice to find the necessary improvements on the field on Saturdays.

OU appears to be in line to get a major reinforcement back ahead of hosting the the No. 19-ranked Kansas Jayhawks this weekend.

Gabriel Nearing Return

Texas held the Oklahoma passing attack to just 39 yards through the air without starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel last Saturday.

Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby may have his trigger man back this week, however, as Gabriel continues to inch closer to clearing concussion protocols.

“He’s full-go at practice,” Venables said. “I think they’ve just continued … whatever all those tests are, they do those to make sure they are on the right side of it. If he continues to stay out of harm’s way in regards to that protocol, I would expect him to play.”

The final verdict on Gabriel’s return will be made on Thursday, Venables said, but in the meantime, the Sooner starter has been able to prepare for the Jayhawks as he normally would.

“I don’t know if it hinders his preparation,” he said. “I don’t know what the concussion protocol … I think they continue to evaluate him every day. I don’t get in the deep weeds. I want a major and a minor. Tell me what he can do, what he can’t do.”

Gabriel’s return would be a major jolt to the offense ahead of OU’s bye week. In his abscence, the Sooners have struggled to move the ball, much less put points on the board.

Sooner Magic Won’t Fix Defense

The past three weeks have been the worst scoring stretch allowed by a Venables defense since he first arrived in Norman.

Playing out of the three-man or four-man defensive front hasn’t mattered much, as Kansas State, TCU and Texas all shredded the Sooner defense.

A few defensive youngsters got a run-out toward the end fo the Texas game, including linebackers Kip Lewis and Jaren Kanak, opening the door to the youth movement getting more and more action over the back half of the season.

Venables didn’t rule out that possibility on down the line, but he reiterated that the most important thing concerning how many snaps each guy will see this season is predicated on the success they have in during the week of preparation.

“There's no magic formula,” Venables said. “It's just based on what you see in practice. Right now, what we're seeing in practice isn't necessarily translating to what we're seeing on game day.

“We're just trying to continue to develop our young guys. There are some guys that y'all don't know about who maybe have been banged up and haven't been able to get repetition, so we're having to move guys at multiple positions. That has stunted their growth, and some of it is because of other injuries.”

He then went on to confirm the report from Parker Thune of 247Sports that linebacker Shane Whitter will be out the rest of the year, adding to OU’s depth issues.

Still, the entire coaching staff will continue to try and push the underclassmen to fight for playing time down the stretch.

“We've got a bunch of really good, young players and ones that are right there on the fringe if they're not in the two-deep,” he said. “We need to play more guys. The No. 1 reason is because it's hard to play week after week after week when you're taking all the reps. We've got to be smarter that way in developing our team.”

Shifting Gears

Entering Game 7, the Sooners rank 127th in the country in time of possession.

No matter if the result of the drive is a touchdown or a three-and-out, the OU offense operates quickly and often lacks rhythm.

Gabriel’s return will allow Lebby to run things as quickly as he wants, but Venables said the offense has plenty of different gears it can work through if to help the team.

“They do have different speeds. The focus is get first downs,” Venables said. “I say that, that’s Captain Obvious here, but it can be a burden. At what point do you play slowdown? Again, I’m playing the devil’s advocate and Jeff doesn’t really care about what everyone thinks, quote-unquote. All of a sudden you slow it down and we don’t want to win? Now we’re going too slow.”

The important thing for the Sooners is they have to start stringing first downs together to sustain drives. If OU can do that, it’ll allow the defense to rest, and could eventually wear down opponents, helping the entire product for the team.

“We have to focus on being more efficient within our play catalogue and the fundamentals that go along with it,” he said. “Getting everyone to play together would be a big help toward getting those first downs and staying on the field and moving the ball and creating field position and create momentum and letting guys get rested and make adjustments, things of that nature, how we’re working and helping each other.”

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