Venables Vibes: Oklahoma's Brent Venables Ready for Head Coaching Debut

NORMAN — Saturday, Brent Venables will make his long-awaited head coaching debut.

It’s seemed like an eternity since the former Oklahoma defensive coordinator returned to Norman to take over the Sooners, but the Venables Era will officially be off and running by the end of the week.

During his first game week press conference as a head coach, Venables expressed great excitement for the season to get underway, but still offered insight on how he will direct the program both in 2022 and beyond.

No Decision on Redshirts

The Sooners released a depth chart on Monday, but Venables said he’s not ready to make a definitive call either way on what players he wishes to redshirt this year.

“Yeah I think it's early,” Venables said. “We've got a little more depth at some positions, but across the board I don't think that we have the depth to say with certainty today before we play our first game that okay these guys are definitely redshirting. Not really there.”

Venables then evoked a name near and dear to Sooners fans’ hearts in Quentin Griffin as an example of a guy who got called into action due to injuries when the initial plan was for him to redshirt.

It’ll be a fluid situation all year, Venables said, as he’s challenged the members of the team who will start on the scout team to continue to compete for a larger role in 2022.

“We've got to have a scout squad right now,” he said. “There's veterans on those scout squads today and there's some freshman on there as well. And but like I've challenged all of them, you have an opportunity to change where you're at and what you're opportunities are in regards to the team by how you practice everyday. And you're certainly not gonna get out of there, come off the scout team if you're moping around.”

UTEP’s Preparation has Oklahoma’s Respect

The UTEP Miners (0-1) dropped their Week 0 contest to the North Texas Mean Green 31-13, but Venables said the performance wasn’t indicative of what the Miners will bring to the table this Saturday in Norman.

“They’re a bowl team, Dana (Dimel’s) done a great job building that program the right way, with confidence and toughness and physicality,” Venables said. “… Bill Snyder’s one of the best offensive minds in the history of college football, in my opinion, and Dana, that’s his root system. He’s done a nice job wherever he’s been. He’s got his guys believing.

“His guys will play loose and they’ll play aggressive. That’s who Dana is. Defensively, they’re really aggressive. They’re going to make you earn everything you get. It’ll be a great challenge for us.”

The Miners return a bulk of the team that finished 7-6 last year, including quarterback Gavin Hardison, and Venables believes they’ll be prepared mentally to face the atmosphere inside Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

Planning for the Future

The responsibilities of the head coach at a place like Oklahoma expand far beyond the scope of game day.

Heading a program the size of a Power 5 school comes with tons of decisions from top to bottom, including who the Sooners put on their non-conference schedule.

Though Venables is new to the job, he said he fully supports Joe Castiglione’s scheduling philosophy and that OU will continue to seek out marquee non-conference battles.

“This is Oklahoma, you know? Playing on the biggest stage in the biggest games is what this place has been used to,” Venables said. “… So whatever his philosophy is, I'm in full support. I just try to control the controllables and our job is to get our team ready to play.”

Regardless of if the Sooners are going to take the field against UTEP or Georgia as they are schedule to do in 2023, Venables said his program is still going to remain laser-focused on maximizing what the program can be.

“I want to be inside out as a program and so whoever it is, again, it's still about us,” he said. “And we need to play the best version of us every week. It's what it's all about. And not playing to an opponent.

“And, again, as I said before, whether it's a home venue or it's on the road or it's the uniforms, the time of the day, the temperature, this point spread. all those things — none of that matters. It's got to be about us.”

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