A common theme against the Oklahoma Sooners contending in 2022 has been, “but Brent Venables has never been a head coach before.”
It’s a true statement. It can’t really be argued. And yet, it rings hollow.
This isn’t a head coach who’s only been in the game for a few years or is the hot coordinator prospect. Brent Venables has been in the coaching game for nearly 30 years.
And this isn’t also your typical position coach who’s slowly worked his way around the country and taken on different opportunities to raise his coaching profile enough to get an opportunity. Venables has had three jobs in his nearly 30-year coaching history. From starting as a graduate assistant and then linebackers coach to serving as the defensive coordinator for Oklahoma and Clemson, Venables has proved to be a coach that will hang around, biding his time.
After leaving Oklahoma for Clemson, Venables became the hottest coordinator in college football after helping the Tigers become one of the best defenses in college football over the last decade. Opportunities to make the jump to head coach came and went, and Venables never felt the timing was right. And in that time, Venables learned from some of the best in the business. Bill Snyder and Bob Stoops are in the College Football Hall of Fame, and one day Dabo Swinney will join them.
30 years of learning from some of the best in the business. That has to matter for something. He’s seen what’s worked. He’s seen what hasn’t. He’s had the opportunity to test his culture on a smaller scale with the linebackers and then the defenses he was in charge of. And the results speak for themselves.
Though only as a coordinator, Venables has been to the mountaintop three times, winning national championships with Oklahoma and Clemson (twice). He’s been to the mountaintop only to get knocked down in losses in the BCS Championship games and in the College Football Playoff.
The highs and lows. The good and the bad. All of it has prepared him for his first head coaching job at the University of Oklahoma, a place that “takes a backseat to nobody.”
We’ve already seen the Oklahoma Sooners reap the rewards of his approach on the recruiting front. In less than two months, Venables and his staff turned a hemorrhaging 2022 recruiting class into the No. 8 class in the cycle. Oklahoma’s still months away from national signing day, but as things stand right now, the Sooners sit No. 7 in both the On3 and 247Sports…