Paul Finebaum calls Brent Venables ‘highly underrated’

SEC media days have come and gone for the Oklahoma Sooners, their first tournament attending media days in their new conference. Brent Venables and the Sooners had a successful week in Dallas, showing they won’t back down from the challenge the SEC presents.

One of the most influential voices in the SEC has been highly complimentary of OU and Venables since the Sooners joined the conference, and he was at it again Friday. ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is a trusted college football analyst and his show “The Paul Finebaum Show” is listened to by the SEC and college football fans everywhere.

Venables appeared on Finebaum’s show on July 1 when Oklahoma officially joined the SEC and had a lot to say about the football program. The Sooners’ head coach was impressive at media days, and on Friday’s edition of his show, Finebaum praised the third-year head coach after a caller expressed positive thoughts about Venables and OU.

“I agree,” Finebaum said. “I was with coach Venables in Norman two weeks ago and a few other times. For me, he is very underrated. If you take Brent Venables out of Clemson, Dabo Swinney may have a title, he may not have a title instead of two titles and six playoff appearances.

Finebaum’s comments about the current Oklahoma football coach certainly differ greatly from his thoughts about the guy who used to hit on Norman.

Venables’ work at Clemson, along with his history at Oklahoma, ultimately led to him being hired to be OU’s next head coach in December 2021. He helped Swinney build the Clemson program into a national power that won the national title in 2016. and 2018.

Swinney was named the interim head coach at Clemson midway through the 2008 season, shedding the interim label and becoming the full-time head coach in 2009. Venables joined the Clemson staff in 2012, and together the pair went on to establish the culture and roster that ultimately they were going to be take Clemson to the top. By their fourth season together, the Tigers were in the national championship game, and by their fifth year, Clemson was on top of the college football world.

Dominating defense has been the hallmark of the Tigers’ six straight College Football Playoff appearances from 2015 to 2020, with Venables in full control of that side of the ball. Everyone around this program knows how important Venables was and how much of a loss his departure was two seasons ago. Finebaum’s theory that Clemson’s remarkable run doesn’t happen without Venables is probably pretty accurate.

Finebaum’s comments on Friday are just the latest in a steady stream this week of positivity from respected voices about the Sooners and how Venables is running the program. Despite that, the media still has Oklahoma picked to finish eighth in the preseason SEC poll. Venables will garner even more praise if he can defy expectations and lead Oklahoma to the Playoffs in their first season in the SEC.

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This story originally appeared on Sooners Wire