As Oklahoma Opens Practice, Brent Venables Can Begin Teaching the Football Side of Things

During the winter offseason, Venables has been focused on a holistic approach to building young men, but even with spring practice here, "it can’t just be about ball."

NORMAN — Brent Venables has been in South Carolina for the last 10 years. Four months in the winter isn’t quite enough for a first-time head coach to get to know his new football team.

At least not the football part.

Venables reiterated Monday that a lot goes into the holistic development of a college football player and, by design, a team.

There will be time to learn everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and install the game plans and sharpen up techniques and implement Xs and Os — all of which starts Tuesday morning when the Sooners open spring practice.

For now, Venables is satisfied with what characteristics he and his staff have have uncovered about the 2022 Sooners.

“I believe the buy-in has been there, the acceptance, the thirst for structure and accountability, for discipline, for relationships,” Venables said during his nearly 60-minute press conference.

John e. Hoover / SI Sooners

“Just help guys be better young people. Help them figure out their journey. It can’t just be about ball. I’m just talking about being ready for life. Life is coming. Quickly. It’s right over there. This is a young man’s game. You can’t play it forever.”

Forget football, Venables said preparing a team of 100-plus young adults for life after football is a challenge in itself. But he’s seen the rewards already.

“Guys have loved the importance that we placed on focusing on the total person, if you will,” he said. “It’s a very real thing. You can’t fabricate it. You can’t just develop a man in one day. It’s changing the direction of the sail, so to speak. As a program – you can do it all. It can’t be all ball.

John E. Hoover / SI Sooners

NCAA rules prohibit teams from conducting football activities outside of spring practice, so Venables doesn’t know who his backup quarterback is yet or how much having a left-handed QB changes the protection calls or if his new right tackle can kick slide proficiently or has good hand placement.

The staff will learn those things between Tuesday and April 23, when the Sooners unveil their new look at the annual Red/White Game.

But Venables no doubt likes what he’s seen so far.

John E. Hoover / SI Sooners

“I think it’s all important,” Venables said. “I think you do it all. And so what do I know? A lot of that we haven’t been on the field yet. And so what have we been able to do? We’ve been able to work them out. We’ve been able to make sure they know how to show up on time. Teach them the value of having the right mindset. Understand ‘big team, little me.’ Making sure that we’re doing everything we can to recognize performance, OK, in our different ways.

“Because words are powerful. There’s life and death in words. And so we got to make sure that we’re speaking life into them. Intentionally and purposefully speaking life into them. Not lying to them. Not tricking them. Just being real with them and honest with them. So from an evaluation standpoint, the football, the workouts, the things of that nature, just have our processes in place that we can recognize performance and correct when it doesn’t meet the standard.”

Venables likens the way athletes invest in their sport to placing all your bets in one square on a roulette wheel.

“Too often, I see young people in athletics and college football and they show up and they’re going all red or all black or all even or all odd,” he said. “They are putting everything on that. It’s a very empty place to be. I don’t want our guys to come in here and be that way. You can still win at the highest level and do it the right way. Prepare these guys and equip them and empower them – not entitle them.

“If you allow them to be all about ball, like, ‘This guy, he’s skipping class, somehow he’s staying eligible — does he go to class?’ You’re not taking any opportunity to develop relationships. If it’s all 6-2 Mau Mau, if it’s all about throwing touchdowns, I think that’s a very dysfunctional place to live. I just don’t believe in that.”