Former Clemson Football Coach Gets Support From Bosses Amid Pressure

One of the top assistant coaches in recent Clemson Tigers football history is feeling the heat at his current employer.

Nov 9, 2024; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables talks with line judge Jeremiah Harris during the first half against the Missouri Tigers at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

Brent Venables took his time in taking a head-coaching job. The former Clemson Tigers defensive coordinator finally got that job when he went back to Oklahoma to take over the Sooners before the 2022 season.

Now in his third season leading OU, he’s feeling the heat.

The Sooners are 5-5 overall, but 1-5 in their first season in SEC action. Oklahoma squandered a potential win against Missouri on Saturday, falling 30-23 after a turnover led to a Tigers scoop-and-score in the final seconds.

It was enough to start social media buzz around whether the Sooners should get rid of Venables, even though he’s in his third season. One industrious fan circulated information on social media regarding the coach’s buyout, which is substantial.

But, if OU president Jay Harroz is to be believed, Venables isn’t going anywhere. He was asked about his commitment to the former Tigers coordinator earlier this week.

“It’s unwavering right now,” Harroz said to Sooner Scoop’s George Stoia III. “We know it's been a tough season. I've been around Oklahoma football for a long time. We have the right coach. This is our coach. We knew it was going to be a tough year, going to the SEC the first year. You add that with all of the things that are taking place around the shifting NIL landscape with, hopefully, more certainty coming next year when the preliminary approval becomes final in the (House vs. NCAA) lawsuit. We knew there was going to be some turbulence. Obviously we'd love to have had more wins. But our confidence in the coach it's as steady as it's ever been.”

OU’s athletic director, Joe Castiglione, expressed the same view in other media reports.

“We truly believe in Coach Venables and our team,” said Castiglione.

In three seasons at Oklahoma he is 21-21. He and the Sooners were coming off a 10-3 season in 2023, the program’s last in the Big 12 Conference. He went 6-7 in his debut in 2022.  

Venables joined the Tigers in 2021 after a long stint as an assistant coach at Oklahoma under Bob Stoops. At the time he was already sought-after as a head-coaching candidate. But he spent nearly a decade at Clemson, in part because he became one of the highest-paid coordinators in college football during that span.

His salary, at one point, was the second-highest of any assistant coach in the game at $1.7 million. He was the 2016 Broyles Award winner as the nation's top assistant coach. He also coordinated the defenses that helped the Tigers win two national championships under current head coach Dabo Swinney.