Report: Deal Between Brent Venables, Oklahoma is Finalized

Clemson is losing defensive coordinator Brent Venables, who is set to become the new head coach at Oklahoma.

It appears the process of Oklahoma going from Lincoln Riley to Brent Venables has been completed. 

Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports reported Sunday night that a deal to make the veteran Clemson defensive coordinator the new head coach of the Sooners has been finalized. 

Sources: Brent Venables has finalized a deal and will be the next coach at Oklahoma.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 6, 2021

Venables received a visit at his lake home in the Upstate of South Carolina from OU athletic director Joe Castiglione on Sunday afternoon, and the band and cheerleaders showed up at the airport hours before a plane was scheduled to even land in Norman. 

Castiglione later sent out a not-so cryptic message. 

🔒

— Joe Castiglione (@soonerad) December 6, 2021

Clemson is losing the architect of its top-notch defense. Venables has been at the helm since 2012 and transformed the Tigers into a unit that ranked among the top-10 best defenses in seven of the last eight seasons. 

Venables is returning to the school where he coached under former HC Bob Stoops from 1999 until leaving for Clemson. Venables inherits one of the most storied programs in college football history in his first head coaching position. 

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney declined any comment on Venables' name being associated with Oklahoma during his Cheez-It Bowl press conference Sunday. 

"Definitely not something we're going to talk about right now," Swinney said. "If there's something to be talked about there, we'll discuss that at the appropriate time."

Negotiations between Venables and OU were still ongoing at that time. Venables was named as a potential candidate right after Riley left the Sooners to take over at Southern California .

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