One analyst has Brent Venables on the short list of the newest coaches to lead a program

VaselineJune 22, 2024

0 2 minutes read

One analyst has Brent Venables on the short list of the newest coaches to lead a program

Brent Venables is one of the most experienced coaches in college football. Sure, he only has a few seasons of head coaching experience, but he’s been coaching at the college level for 30 years.

Sure he didn’t win a national championship as a head coach, but he has three titles as a defensive coordinator for the Oklahoma Sooners and Clemson Tigers. You’d be hard-pressed to find a coach with as much experience and success as a coordinator as Venables. And in the last two years he has shown his prowess as a head coach.

Although 2022 was a disappointment by Oklahoma standards, Venables quickly turned things around in 2023, leading the Sooners to 10 wins. Now it’s about sustaining that success as the Sooners prepare to move to the SEC.

And with another contract extension in hand, the Sooners have their long-term guy. On3’s JD PicKell also believes in Venables. On a recent show, he cast the Sooners head coach as the guy with less than five years of head coaching experience to lead his program.

The thing I love about him. If they bring him in as a head coach…has he won another national championship? Not as a head coach. But I tell you what, he did it as a coordinator. He knows what it looks like to win at a high level. He knows what a list should look like. He knows what culture should look like. I’m telling you, that’s what matters. It’s important to be able to have a pretty solid plan and be able to do it yourself. I think that will ultimately allow for a lot of success for Brent Venables in the long run. – PicKell, On3

Venables spent nearly 30 years learning at the feet of Hall of Fame head coaches Bill Snyder, Bob Stoops and Dabo Swinney. He was regularly mentioned for head coaching jobs, but waited for the right opportunity, which was Oklahoma. By the time he took the OU job, Venables had a pretty good feel for the type of program he wanted to build and the culture he wanted to instill.

And PicKell points to the Sooners’ recruiting success as reason to believe in what Venables is building.

In a short sample at Oklahoma, he went from six wins to 10 wins pretty quickly, he has two top 10 classes so far at Oklahoma. He can and will recruit. When you watch Oklahoma players interact and talk about Brent Venables, guys are playing for him. Going back to culture, going back to buy-in. I don’t think you can overstate the importance of this.

The Sooners are on a great trajectory with Venables leading the way. One of the best defensive minds in football has the program headed for SEC competition. Signed to a contract extension, Venables has the confidence of the management and fan base.

Now all he has to do is go and win.

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This story originally appeared on Sooners Wire

VaselineJune 22, 2024

0 2 minutes read