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WATCH: Oklahoma's Brent Venables SEC Media Days Breakout

After meeting the press in the big room at media days, the Sooners' head coach talked more on Wednesday to discuss a wide range of topics.
John Hoover|
SEC Media Days - Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables Breakout
SEC Media Days - Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables Breakout

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Put Brent Venables in front of a camera or microphone and he won’t miss an opportunity to applaud the Oklahoma fan base.

In Year 2 of being an SEC member, the Sooners will welcome several conference foes to Norman for the first time, including Auburn, Ole Miss and LSU.

“The people of Oklahoma, they’re blue-collar. Super welcoming,” Venables said on Wednesday as the Sooners took center stage at day three of SEC Media Days in downtown Atlanta. “They can be vicious, too. You want that.

“Twenty-six straight years of selling out since ’99,” he said. “If Oklahoma’s playing well, they’re gonna be really, really loud.”

Venables spoke to the media several times on Wednesday. In his breakout session, he was asked what his takeaways were from the first season in the SEC.

“How long do you got?” Venables said with a laugh. “ … It’s a one-possession league. It’s a league that’s determined at the line of scrimmage. There’s elite players one every single team that you play, at every single position you’re gonna play. If you show up on a Saturday not ready to play, you’re gonna get it handed to you. I know this, if you give the ball back more than you take it away, you’re gonna have a hard time winning.”

Venables is entering his fourth year at the OU helm. After spending 13 years as Bob Stoops’ defensive coordinator from 1999-2011, Venables knows how valuable the OU fan base can be to the team’s success.

“Hopefully it’s not too hospitable,” he said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if it is.”

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John E. Hoover
JOHN HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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