All Sooners

As Oklahoma Opens Historic Spring Practice, 'How We Play the Game' is Huge to Venables

In less than four months the Sooners begin life in the SEC, so Venables is eager to use the next 41 days to see "how we evolve" as a football team.

John E. Hoover

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NORMAN — Monday officially begins Year 3 of the Brent Venables era at Oklahoma.

On this day, the Sooners are opening spring practice 2024.

It’s been called the most important spring practice in the history of OU football, and that’s probably not hyperbole. After 109 seasons of affiliation with the Southwest Conference, the Missouri Valley, the Big Six, the Big Seven, the Big Eight or the Big 12, the Sooners migrate to the Southeastern Conference on July 1.

College football’s winningest program since World War II, a program with seven national championships and seven Heisman Trophy winners, a program that has often been the avant garde of the college game — whether racial integration or wishbone innovation or air raid sensation — finds itself in a firestorm of doubt.

Is Oklahoma ready for the SEC? The Sooners ruled the Big 12, with 14 titles in 28 years, but can they compete in college football’s premier league? Can Venables and his staff recruit on Georgia’s level? Can they develop NFL talent on LSU’s level? Can they win on Alabama’s level?

For his part, Venables sounds mostly confident.

“We’ll see if the investment and commitment is there as we develop our team, Team 130,” he said last week. “Ultimately, that will be the test of what we’re going to be, what our commitment is.”

Oklahoma has the makeup to make it in the SEC long-term. The infrastructure is strong and growing. The fan base is in place. The budget is competitive. The history is second to none. The investment — from the president to the AD to the head coach to the big money donors — is there.

Now, after going 6-7 and 10-3 in his first two seasons, Venables believes this OU team will make the most of the next 41 days — 15 spring practices, starting Monday and ending with the Red/White Game on April 20 — and continue the work and the growth he’s seen since the team reconvened in mid-January.

Oklahoma's Brent Venables Reveals Good News On and Off Field Ahead of Spring Practice

“I really like where we are at in a lot of places,” Venables said. “We’re anxious and excited to watch our guys get out on the field, our coaches and players together to start to do spring ball. This is the time of year where we reinforce all of our processes and how we practice, how we compete and how we play, how we run on and off the field, all the little things – doing the little things right.”

This OU team faces one of the nation’s toughest schedules, with tantalizing but terrifying home games against Tennessee and Alabama, and a road slate that includes trips to an improving Auburn, a surging Ole Miss, a potentially historic Missouri and a hungry LSU.

And a neutral site game against a Texas team that’s coming off its best season in more than a decade.

Wins won’t come easy — not that they ever did. But this year, every inch will be earned.

And while all eyes are on new quarterback Jackson Arnold, the team itself could look quite a bit different than it did last fall. Venables has a new offensive coordinator (Seth Littrell replaces Jeff Lebby), a new defensive coordinator (Zac Alley replaces Ted Roof) and a new special teams analyst (Doug Deakin replaces Jay Nunez).

Again, arguably the most important spring practice in the history of the program has arrived for Oklahoma.

“It’s also an opportunity for us to look at how we evolve in all three phases of the game, what we’re going to do and what we’re going to tinker with and have an opportunity to try some new things,” Venables said. “But most importantly, we’re going to establish our standard of expectations, how we practice, how we compete, how we play the game, how we meet, all those types of things.”

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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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