Oklahoma’s Brent Venables tells Paul Finebaum about OU’s ‘incredible big’

Brent Venables can barely contain his excitement for the 2024 college football season.

Of course, that Venables in any year, with any team, against any league.

But since Monday SEC Day festivities all over the Sooner State and the prospect of playing as a member of the Southeastern Conference for the first time makes Venables almost crackle with anticipation.

“Obviously, this year is incredibly important,” Venables said Monday as the opening guest on “The Paul Finebaum Show.” “We have worked very hard in the last two years to prepare for this moment. But what’s in front of us now is trying to put together the best roster we can and get these guys as prepared as possible.”

Finebaum — the voice of the SEC — originated his show from the Norman campus as the SEC and SEC Network welcomed the Sooners as the 15th and 16th members of the most powerful conference in college sports.

Finebaum asked Venables about his recent contract extension, the rich tradition of the OU program and where the Sooners stand as they enter the SEC in two months.

“You’re going to understand a lot, you’re going to learn a lot in this transition,” Venables said. “But this is not so much about where we go as about who we go. It’s not so much about proving people wrong as trying to prove each other right. We’ve worked very, very hard on both our program and our roster, the vision of our program, but short-term and long-term, what we need to do to make the transition to the SEC. But incredibly interesting.”

When Finebaum asked about the looming difficulty of Oklahoma’s schedule this fall, Venables couldn’t help but agree.

“We recognize there will be more games that come down to the last drive of the game,” Venables said. “This is SEC from top to bottom because you’ve taken the last few months to (assess) what we’re facing now. Looking at that league from top to bottom, it’s incredibly competitive. Preaching to the choir, I know this. But what are the things it will take apart from being good on your list? All the efficiency and the things that it takes to win a game, whether it’s the turnover margin or four minutes or two minutes, all those types of things are really going to play a huge role this season. It’s something we recognize as we’ve built our roster during the most tumultuous time in college football history in terms of stability. On our roster, we’ve worked hard to try to help ourselves in every area, but if you’re going to win at the highest level in the SEC, you’re going to win because of the trenches.”

Venables also expressed appreciation to OU President Joe Harroz and Athletic Director Joe Castiglione for the two-year contract extension and raising money last week that will pay him $51.6 million over six years.

“Two of the best leaders in college athletics,” Venables said. “Their belief not only in me but in all of our coaches, what we’ve been able to do in two short years, is everything. It’s going to take everyone, and to get their approval at this point, coming into the SEC, that means a lot to all of us.”

Finebaum said he spent Sunday in Austin talking to Texas players and coaches and got the impression that Texas is seen as more SEC-ready than Oklahoma, despite the Sooners owning 14 Big 12 Conference championships compared to just four for Texas.

Venables took the opportunity to reiterate why OU “doesn’t take a back seat to anybody” in the SEC or anywhere else.

“It’s one of the top five, legendary, iconic and winningest programs in college football history,” Venables said. “So this is a program — whether it’s the 47-game winning streak, the most conference championships in college football history, the national championships, all the Heisman Trophy winners, the countless players that are in the hall right now of fame — both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame — the consensus All-Americans, you start going through the draft picks, all of that, things of that nature, this program stands on its own two feet.

“And now you get an elite-to-elite matchup: an elite program like Oklahoma has been for the last hundred years, matching up against the best brand and the best league in college football, the SEC.”