Why Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables Gets So Emotional Recalling Clashes With Nebraska
NORMAN — Ask Oklahoma coach Brent Venables about Nebraska, and you’re likely to get a colorful story — or an emotional reaction.
Venables offered both on Tuesday during his weekly press conference.
The No. 6-ranked Sooners (2-0) visit the Cornhuskers (1-2) on Saturday morning, and Venables — from Salina, KS, just under three hours south of Lincoln, NE — had to pause twice to compose himself when recounting some of his games against the Huskers as an OU assistant.
It was another illustration of the passion and emotion that burns within the Sooners’ head coach, and showed that he doesn’t mind wearing those emotions on his sleeve — even in a routine press conference.
“A lot of tough losses, tough moments as a young coach,” Venables said. “So I got, in my own space, got a lot of really cool moments. I was very fortunate to be a part of those.”
Venables paused when describing his experience in 2000 after beating the No. 1-ranked Huskers on Owen Field. His reaction was raw and revealing.
“For years (as a Kansas State assistant), you just didn't think you could beat them at the end of the day,” Venables said. “And then of course we came to Oklahoma, and I remember getting down 14-0 and coach (Bob) Stoops bringing us over — I think (Eric) Crouch was maybe the quarterback then, and they're running the option, you know, we had overpursued a few times and they went right down, pow-pow, man, just body blow, uppercut and we're just laying on the ropes — and coach Stoops comes over, ‘Let's go, we're all right, just slow it down,’ and we’re like, ‘Surely it can't be that easy.’ But he was right. And then we went 31 unanswered — really? What a great (day).
“All I remember, they tore down the goalposts out there,” Venables continued before pausing to compose himself. “Tore down — tore down the goalpost in Norman, Oklahoma, which we know they don't do. And I remember all — I’m ashamed now, because I wasn't celebrating. I'm like, we just, whatever it was, one versus two, and I'm literally thinking, ‘I gotta get home. I gotta get sleep because we gotta’ — I can't remember if it was K-State or Kansas or somebody, and I’m thinking, ‘We're gonna get beat next week if I don't get home.’
“So I'm literally driving through campus on the sidewalks. ‘I gotta get home.’ All these crazy people, you know, celebrating, and I got to get some sleep because, you know, I always felt like my role was the most important role. That’s how I always felt. So that was a cool moment. But I'm ashamed because I didn't — I didn't — I didn't take any opportunity to soak it in, you know? I just didn't, you know? And that's a dysfunctional place to be.”
After recounting No. 1 OU’s shocking loss in Lincoln in 2001 and painfully remembering Jason White’s knee injury, Venables got choked up again thinking about the Sooners’ return to Nebraska in 2005.
For a different reason.
“I remember when my mom passed away on Wednesday,” he said before another pause.
“I mean, Rufus (Alexander), my man Rufus and whoever else, we had a bunch of sacks. I think we had eight or nine sacks up the A gap. So I remember that one real well. And we won that game.”
Venables also recalled the 10-3 loss in Lincoln in 2009 and the win over the Huskers in the Big 12 title game in 2010.
“A lot of great memories,” he said.
