Oklahoma's players praise Brent Venables' intensity and culture

Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables was a first-time head coach when he returned to Norman in December of 2021. Though he'd been an excellent linebackers coach at Kansas State, a stellar co-defensive coordinator at OU, and a rockstar defensive coordinator at Clemson, he'd never been in charge of his own program before. At KSU, Venables was never more than a position coach on the legendary Bill Snyder's staff.

He'd played linebacker for the Wildcats for two seasons, so he worked his way up from graduate assistant to LBs coach, before leaving his alma mater. As a first-time defensive coordinator during his first stint at OU, Venables worked under head coach Bob Stoops and helped run the defensive side of the ball, along with Bob's younger brother, Mike, who was the play-caller. When Mike left to be Arizona's head coach, Brent became the play-caller and ran the defense alongside Bo Pelini for a season, and then trusted longtime assistant Bobby Jack Wright for a few years after that.

However, when Mike was fired in Tucson, Bob decided to bring him back to Oklahoma. The plan was that Mike would work alongside Venables for a second stint together, and call the OU defense again. Of course, that didn't happen, as after 13 years in Norman, Venables wanted to continue calling his own defense, so he made the hard decision to leave for the DC job at Clemson.

With the Tigers, Venables helped head coach Dabo Swinney build a powerhouse. Venables' defenses were among the nation's best, and he turned down multiple head coaching opportunities to stay in Clemson. However, when the Sooners came calling, asking him to be OU's next head coach, Venables had to say yes.