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As Brent Venables Restocks the Oklahoma Roster, 'It's Christmas Every Day'

The Sooners' coach faces a major challenge every year at this time as the roster upheaval begins and players begin to transition out of OU, out of college or just out of football.

John E. Hoover

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Just two years ago, Brent Venables was putting together his first coaching staff and probably wondering how close he would get to making Oklahoma football look like he wanted it to look.

Venables was a first-time head coach, and all he had to go on was what Bill Snyder and Bob Stoops and Dabo Swinney had done.

As OU prepares to face Arizona in the Alamo Bowl while closing out another potential top-five recruiting class while searching through the transfer portal while flying around the country visiting prospects and commits and getting face time with their families while trying to help his current players either decide to return next year or enter the portal or declare for the NFL Draft while trying maintain some semblance of home life as the holidays approach, Venables took stock of the challenges inherent in the whole process of being a college football coach.

“It's all hard — I say this all the time — but it's all good,” Venables said. “ … For the next month, it's kind of like Christmas every day. It really is.”

Venables and Arizona coach Jedd Fisch attend a press conference in San Antonio on Thursday to preview their Dec. 28 meeting in the Alamodome. Venables the the opportunity to do a little math.

Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables Discusses Dillon Gabriel, Jackson Arnold Situation

“We'll probably end up signing, give or take, around 35 to 37 new scholarship players,” Venables said. “A year ago we signed 42 scholarship players we brought in in January. Close to another transformation. Similar. Quite a bit less when it comes to the transfer portal.

“We'll look to sign, give or take, around 27 high school players. I think 20 of them will be mid-year. That's really exciting for me. We'll have, give or take, 28, 29 midyear players when we start in January.”

Dillon Gabriel? Transfer portal. Danny Stutsman? NFL Draft. Billy Bowman? Going to decide after the bowl game. Some in, some out, some to be determined.

Like Venables said, the renovation he started two years ago remains in effect.

“But it's a little less work than we had a year ago at this time,” he acknowledged. “Not much.”

The harsh reality is that so much of college football no longer looks like it did when Venables got into the game. Snyder and Stoops never had to deal with the portal. Swinney has been extremely reluctant to start. Players under Snyder and Stoops never opted out of a bowl game. None of them had to skate around their players’ intentions while certain social media obligations were fulfilled. Cooking up something with your local NIL collective — or even waiting around while the NCAA steps in and suddenly proposes major rule changes for player compensation — was never part of the discussion during almost all of Venables’ tenure as an assistant coach.

“I love a challenge,” Venables said. “I'm a competitive person by nature. We're all — for the most part, some people would probably beg to differ, but we play by the same rules. In some ways right now there are no rules. I say that tongue-in-cheek.

“It's a very hectic time, but I rely on our staff. We have a wonderful support staff, really connected full-time staff. Again, there's several things going on right now with our current roster, just like everybody else's rosters. Many things you've planned on. We've had a handful of players that are 'in the portal.’ We look at them as seniors, as graduates, as guys that weren't going to be part of our program after this season. The only thing you don't know is whether or not they're going to try to go to the NFL or they're going to try to decide to use that additional year of eligibility somewhere else.

“You do have to make adjustments, if you will, when it comes to your depth. That's a real thing. But other than that, I love putting puzzles, the pieces of the puzzle, together. I've always really enjoyed that. Try to find great people. That's exciting to me.”

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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