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NORMAN — Just as a year ago, Brent Venables stood in front of reporters on the eve of his football team starting fall camp.
But unlike a year ago, the OU coach’s job security wasn’t as hot a topic as his seat.
Coming off a double-digit win season that included an appearance in the College Football Playoff, the heat on Venables has cooled. No longer are people wondering if the Sooners are heading in the right direction after another losing season. No longer are pundits, both professional and amateur, asking if Venables is the right guy to lead OU football.
Becoming only the third coach in program history with more than one losing season will bring such queries.
But now, the questions have changed — how good might these Sooners be, and how high might Venables take them?
More: OU football coach Brent Venables says John Mateer's offseason focus has been impressive
So, the pressure is off.
Right?
Nope, says Venables, because he believes the best programs are always generating their own.
“Pressure is a part of your culture,” he said. “It’s a mentality that should be a shared belief system, and we should all feel that every single year. If you’re comfortable, you’re gonna get beat.
“Comfort is something that we’ve got to resist.”
With the Sooners set to begin practice Wednesday, there is no doubt the narrative has changed since this time last year. They earned that shift with a bunch of tough wins last season, including tight fits against Michigan, Tennessee and Alabama, and a defense that was among the best in the country.
Venables, by the way, fully took over that defense last season. Even though it was a move that initially caused some raised eyebrows — sure, he was a great defensive coordinator before, but would he be able to handle doing that job and being the head coach? — it worked out smashingly. It felt like a make-or-break move, to be honest. If it didn’t pull the Sooners out of the doldrums, Venables would’ve probably been out of a job.
But, of course, it did and he isn’t.
Still, when I asked Venables on Tuesday if the start of this season felt different than it did last season, he insisted that the vibe was the same. The motivation. The drive. The pressure.
“The circumstances are different,” Venables admitted, “but I don’t think the approach should ever change.”
He won’t allow it to.
“He’s going to set the thermostat here for the coaches and for the players,” OU receivers coach Emmett Jones said. “Every day he has an approach that someone’s trying to get over him. Every day he’s always looking, looking, looking to see who’s trying to take a break.”
Venables’ dial is always at 11.
Even at a staff meeting.
“It’s like it’s fourth-and-1 in a championship game,” Jones said. “So it’s just every day, the details, you doing your job and maximizing to the fullest.
“Any slip up, you can feel pressure coming behind you from a guy like Coach V.”
And maybe that’s the secret sauce for these Sooners, the shove that pushes them not only back to the CFP but also into the playoff win column.
A year ago, everyone inside OU football headquarters knew that the prior season wasn’t good enough. A losing record doesn’t fly anywhere, but in Norman? On the gridiron? Nope, nope, nopeity nope nope.
The internal drive was naturally high.
More: Oklahoma's spot in preseason college football Coaches Poll might surprise you
This season, though, it could be easy to get complacent. To believe with a bunch of returning defenders and an upgrade in offensive talent that improvement will be a given. To think the winning-in-the-SEC code has been cracked.
But Venables is quick to point out the 2024 season. The Sooners were coming off a 10-win season that year, too, and even though the offense had a lot of new faces and a freshman quarterback, everyone felt good about where things were headed.
Then, the wheels fell off. Well, actually, the whole dang car came apart.
Venables is aware, then, that nothing is a given this season.
“We have an opportunity to have a really good football team,” he acknowledged.
And …
“There was some momentum that was maybe created through the back half of the season,” he said of last year. “I think it has driven hunger.”
But …
“It’s hard to win. That’s not a fancy cliche. That’s the truth. We know the margins are small.”
That’s why Venables treats staff meetings like it’s fourth-and-1 and missed assignments in practice like they’re the difference in the national championship game. Everything matters. And that doesn’t change based on how the previous season went.
“Highly competitive people hate to lose,” Sooner safeties coach Brandon Hall said.
Hall mentioned Michael Jordan and his six NBA titles.
“But yet every single year, he was angry to win another one,” Hall said. “And I think Coach Venables sets that thermostat.”
Jones said, “It’s a pressure cooker every day, and you’re going to be held accountable here at a high level.”
Yes, there was external heat on Venables and the Sooners a year ago, but where OU football is concerned, it’s never going to be 70 and sunny as long as Venables is involved.
He won’t allow it.
“I like pressure,” he said. “Pressure is a good thing.”
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at [email protected]. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football coach Brent Venables' seat has cooled, but not his intensity to succeed
Continue reading...
But unlike a year ago, the OU coach’s job security wasn’t as hot a topic as his seat.
Coming off a double-digit win season that included an appearance in the College Football Playoff, the heat on Venables has cooled. No longer are people wondering if the Sooners are heading in the right direction after another losing season. No longer are pundits, both professional and amateur, asking if Venables is the right guy to lead OU football.
Becoming only the third coach in program history with more than one losing season will bring such queries.
But now, the questions have changed — how good might these Sooners be, and how high might Venables take them?
More: OU football coach Brent Venables says John Mateer's offseason focus has been impressive
So, the pressure is off.
Right?
Nope, says Venables, because he believes the best programs are always generating their own.
“Pressure is a part of your culture,” he said. “It’s a mentality that should be a shared belief system, and we should all feel that every single year. If you’re comfortable, you’re gonna get beat.
“Comfort is something that we’ve got to resist.”
With the Sooners set to begin practice Wednesday, there is no doubt the narrative has changed since this time last year. They earned that shift with a bunch of tough wins last season, including tight fits against Michigan, Tennessee and Alabama, and a defense that was among the best in the country.
Venables, by the way, fully took over that defense last season. Even though it was a move that initially caused some raised eyebrows — sure, he was a great defensive coordinator before, but would he be able to handle doing that job and being the head coach? — it worked out smashingly. It felt like a make-or-break move, to be honest. If it didn’t pull the Sooners out of the doldrums, Venables would’ve probably been out of a job.
But, of course, it did and he isn’t.
Still, when I asked Venables on Tuesday if the start of this season felt different than it did last season, he insisted that the vibe was the same. The motivation. The drive. The pressure.
“The circumstances are different,” Venables admitted, “but I don’t think the approach should ever change.”
He won’t allow it to.
“He’s going to set the thermostat here for the coaches and for the players,” OU receivers coach Emmett Jones said. “Every day he has an approach that someone’s trying to get over him. Every day he’s always looking, looking, looking to see who’s trying to take a break.”
Venables’ dial is always at 11.
Even at a staff meeting.
“It’s like it’s fourth-and-1 in a championship game,” Jones said. “So it’s just every day, the details, you doing your job and maximizing to the fullest.
“Any slip up, you can feel pressure coming behind you from a guy like Coach V.”
And maybe that’s the secret sauce for these Sooners, the shove that pushes them not only back to the CFP but also into the playoff win column.
A year ago, everyone inside OU football headquarters knew that the prior season wasn’t good enough. A losing record doesn’t fly anywhere, but in Norman? On the gridiron? Nope, nope, nopeity nope nope.
The internal drive was naturally high.
More: Oklahoma's spot in preseason college football Coaches Poll might surprise you
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This season, though, it could be easy to get complacent. To believe with a bunch of returning defenders and an upgrade in offensive talent that improvement will be a given. To think the winning-in-the-SEC code has been cracked.
But Venables is quick to point out the 2024 season. The Sooners were coming off a 10-win season that year, too, and even though the offense had a lot of new faces and a freshman quarterback, everyone felt good about where things were headed.
Then, the wheels fell off. Well, actually, the whole dang car came apart.
Venables is aware, then, that nothing is a given this season.
“We have an opportunity to have a really good football team,” he acknowledged.
And …
“There was some momentum that was maybe created through the back half of the season,” he said of last year. “I think it has driven hunger.”
But …
“It’s hard to win. That’s not a fancy cliche. That’s the truth. We know the margins are small.”
That’s why Venables treats staff meetings like it’s fourth-and-1 and missed assignments in practice like they’re the difference in the national championship game. Everything matters. And that doesn’t change based on how the previous season went.
“Highly competitive people hate to lose,” Sooner safeties coach Brandon Hall said.
Hall mentioned Michael Jordan and his six NBA titles.
“But yet every single year, he was angry to win another one,” Hall said. “And I think Coach Venables sets that thermostat.”
Jones said, “It’s a pressure cooker every day, and you’re going to be held accountable here at a high level.”
Yes, there was external heat on Venables and the Sooners a year ago, but where OU football is concerned, it’s never going to be 70 and sunny as long as Venables is involved.
He won’t allow it.
“I like pressure,” he said. “Pressure is a good thing.”
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at [email protected]. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football coach Brent Venables' seat has cooled, but not his intensity to succeed
Continue reading...
