Why Brent Venables Believes Doug Deakin Can Make Oklahoma's Special Teams Special Again
NORMAN — Brent Venables knows Oklahoma’s special teams have to get better.
As the Sooners grow into their station in the Southeastern Conference, there will be areas the Sooners have to catch up.
But special teams play doesn’t have be one of them. In fact, special teams is a phase of the game in which the Sooners can pace the SEC with the right athletes in the right position and the right coach drawing up the right schemes.
That’s why Venables hired Doug Deakin.
“Loved Doug's body of work,” Venables said last week. “He's been committed. He's built something where he’s at in a lot of different ways. He’s earned his way in this profession. So he’s got a great journey and a great testimony of how he got to where he is — but he's really good. He's passionate about what he does.”
According to ESPN’s overall efficiency rankings for 2023, Oklahoma’s special teams — placekicking, punting, punt return, kickoff coverage, kickoff return — ranked No. 127 in the nation last year.
So when Jay Nunez took an on-field coaching position at Alabama, Venables replaced him as the Sooners’ special teams analyst with Deakin. Venables described an “alignment” between what Deakin has done in the past and what Venables wants OU’s special teams to look like.
“He's smart,” Venables said. “Again, success both in scheme and fundamentals of the game. He’s got a philosophy on special teams from an aggressiveness standpoint that aligns with what we want to be as well in the special teams area.”
Make a few more field goals, don’t drop punts and don’t get a punt blocked for a touchdown against your rival and OU special teams would have looked a lot more efficient last season.
Venables believes Deakin could be the difference in elevating everyone’s game.
At San Diego State, Deakin’s special teams units ranked in the top 10 nationally three straight years, according to the ESPN efficiency marker. In 2022, the Aztecs ranked No. 2, and last year they were No. 9.
He was the special teams coordinator at his alma mater, but at OU he’ll fill an analyst’s role, meaning he can run staff meetings and work with players at practice, but he’s not allowed to coach on game days.
Last year at OU, for instance, Joe Jon Finley ran the punt team, Bill Bedenbaugh ran the field goal/extra point team, Brandon Hall ran the kickoff team, etc. Each unit’s coach coordinates with the analyst, who studies opponents’ tendencies and comes up with specific sets for that week.
Deakin’s success at SDSU indicates he’ll turn OU’s special teams from a weakness into a strength.
“Again, we feel like this will be an opportunity to improve and get better (in) obviously, a space that we've got to improve,” Venables said. “Kick the ball with the ball with more consistency. We can't turn the ball over. We gotta be more efficient in every part of that. I think the one area that we were pretty good, top five in the country, was kickoff. But every other part of our special teams will substantially improve if we make a few more kicks and we don't fumble the ball.”
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