Brent Venables Brings Openness, Transparency to the Oklahoma Football Program

In a 90-minute video conference call with local media on Thursday, Venables pulled back the curtain on a range of topics, from himself to recruiting to OU football in general.

It’s very clearly a new day at Oklahoma.

Brent Venables is in charge now, and whether it’s naming the starting quarterback in early February (it’s Dillon Gabriel) or the variety of defensive fronts (there are three basic ones so far), there’s an openness and clarity and transparency that didn’t exist before.

On Wednesday, National Signing Day, Venables was scheduled for a 40-minute video press conference — he’d have done it in person, but with winter weather approaching, technology was invoked — but could only give 30 because that technology (a shoddy internet connection) let him down.

So Venables invited everyone back again on Thursday, this time with a steadier WiFi signal, and gave local media an unprecedented 90 minutes of his time.

College football coaches who finish the endless recruiting grind with a press conference generally aren’t seen again for a month or more. But Venables on Thursday sat in a recliner, phone in hand, revealing aspects of himself, his program, his coaching staff and his players, that Sooner Nation has been starved for.

He compared Adrian Peterson to a ready-made brownie mix, invoked a quote from Gandhi, described his desperation as a poor walk-on college student and explained what was the most “frustrating” thing about his first two months back in Norman.

Here are a few highlights from Venables’ 90-minute conference call:

“You’d better be able to play great defense”

Jason Kersey of The Athletic asked Venables about an apparent emphasis on the defensive line in recruiting.

“I’ve had the good fortune to coach in eight national championship games, 30 different playoff games through the years, and I say that not in a braggadocious way but in a very humbling way, I recognize how hard it is to get there. Play for a conference championship, to have a chance to play in the playoffs, certainly to have a chance to not only get in the national championship game but win it, and you’d better believe it starts at the line of scrimmage. That's where it's all always has been, always will be. You know, just watching that game a few weeks ago with Georgia and Alabama, that’s what jumped out to me. You know, the the decade that I was at Clemson, we had the most sacks in college football, the most tackles for loss in college football, we had the most defensive lineman drafted in college football, and again, with the second winningest team in college football during that time. Certainly it takes having great playmaker at quarterback on one side of the ball. But you better believe, you better to play be able to play great defense and you got to have great people up front, guys that can play physical, guys with length that can stop the run and get after the quarterback.”

“Just add water”

Kersey squeezed in a follow-up question about new signee Kevonte Henry, who signed after Wednesday’s conference call.

“One of the cool things I love about recruiting and coaching, you know, every three to five years, a cool thing about being in colleges, these guys get to graduate and chase their dreams and become husbands and fathers and employees, employers, and it's really cool to help facilitate that growth and that development. But people forget sometimes, when they show up, sometimes it's ‘just add water.’ Right? If you know — how many of y'all like to make those those cookies or those brownies, all you got to do is add water? Right? Ain’t no mess. Just, poof! We all know who — Adrian Peterson. Just add water. Stay out of the way. And then some guys, you got to you got to kind of lay it all out, man. You got to undo the — you gotta take them out of the box, you got to spread everything out, you got unfold the instructions and you know you got to kind of piece by piece you put it together. And at the end of the day, you can get it to the same point. It just might take a little while. So — ‘Assembly required,’ the box says, right? It says ‘Batteries not included.’ So you got some work to do. But that's OK too. That's a fun thing about coaching and developing, and just the really cool — and there's so many countless stories like like that Vic Beasley. You know, Adrian Peterson. Those are generational kind of guys, man. You can't count on (landing) those guys. Gerald McCoy, Tommy Harris, some of those monsters. One of the funnest moments, most rewarding things, and that's a lot of fun to coach them guys, trust me. But it's very fulfilling and very rewarding when you when you get a guy that, you know, is just a piece of clay and they come in and, through through a process of a lot of hard work and sweat equity, having some stick-to-itiveness, you know, they become something pretty special.”

“Is anybody else seeing this?”

Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman asked about Venables’ new SOUL Mission program, wherein he has hired former players — Josh Norman, Curtis Lofton and Caleb Kelly so far — to come back and essentially mentor current players in a multitude of ways.

“When I went to Clemson a decade ago, and I was still employed by Oklahoma but I went to go visit and be a fly on the wall on that recruiting weekend, I was exposed to a very thorough in-house, life-skills and development program that they had set up. It was just an ‘aha; moment. I was overwhelmed spiritually, man, I was I'm in the back of the room and I'm like, I'm having a moment. And I'm looking around I'm like, ‘Is anybody else seeing this?’ Literally, these are things that I have talked about. Just, you know, anybody that was willing to listen, but putting it all together in the football space. It was not necessarily something that people did, you know, intentionally or did beyond just kind of putting lipstick on it, if you will, or say, checking a box. And so I felt the genuineness and probably knowing somebody’s why, you know, and the intentions — and not just having good people, but good people with the right intentions. And so I just — it was an aha moment for me and something that I was very involved in. And so and so for me, I was like, that's like, that's got to be the backbone of the program, in my opinion. … If you make it all about just winning and chasing championships, it’s gonna be a very unfulfilling journey. … It’s a leadership initiative program. It’s all encompassing. Their manhood. Mentorship. There’s a spiritual aspect. Shame on us if we don’t provide opportunities for young people to grow in their faith. I’m not here to save everybody, but I do have values. I’m a Christian, and I’m not afraid to profess my beliefs.”

“That guy’s got a story”

Venables continued his answer about the program and why linebacker Caleb Kelly was such a good fit.

“I learned a long time ago that there's no true connection unless you have commitment. And so I just, from a relational standpoint, it's very organically a very natural thing for us. And so just finding that in the first time I met Caleb Kelly, I'm like, ‘That guy's got a story that needs to be heard,’ but not just have a story. He's, he's a connector, you know, it's easy for him his. His best asset is he's a relational person. He's got this amazing story, but he also has a heart for people. And his spirit, the light inside of that guy, I was like, I saw that the first 30 seconds that I met him, I'm like, ‘I gotta get that guy in the SOUL mission.’ And that was kind of my mind, without just jumping on him and getting him scared from me, to be, you know, just like ‘psycho coach.’ I've been a psycho recruiter before, where I'm like, scare ‘em off because I'm too aggressive too soon. But he was such a natural.”

“Gandhi says … “

During his nearly 20-minute answer, Venables invoked a quote from Mahatma Gandhi.

“I’ve just got a passion for it,” he said. “I just believe success will follow that. When you keep the main thing the main thing and you love your players, you serve their heart, not their talent — and that means you got to have accountability, you got to have discipline, you got to have structure. But you got to have love, first and foremost. And I think that's having an opportunity to help create and facilitate dreams other than just being these great football players. I think that's a huge responsibility. And just a really unique opportunity. We're going to have them for three or four years. Let's do all we can. Let's help them run the race to win. That's what it looks like. Like, that's what it really looks like. That's what best is the standard means, when we're getting the absolute best resources, the best time, the best people, the best intentions, the best love, and helping these young guys find themselves, find their lives, find their purpose. Because so many of them come in here they don't think like that. And so helping young people think the right way is where it all starts. You know, Gandhi, he says ‘Destiny, OK, it starts with your beliefs.’ And so ultimately, where you end up in life, your destiny starts with your beliefs. And we got to do a great job, because I think young people, one of the things that they don't do a great job is thinking the right way. And so helping them think the right way, helping them gain perspective, helping them have a balance in their lives — not being so overloaded in one thing. You know, helping them have — so many of them are coming in here, whether that's parents or coaches or their own self imposed expectations, it can just be overwhelming.”

“I’m still a hamster on that wheel …”

Guerin Emig of the Tulsa World asked Venables if he’d had any “Oh hell” moments after his hiring, such as when Bob Stoops confided to a friend in Florida in 1998, “I think I’ve ruined my life.”

“Oh hell was probably maybe the first 48 hours, when like, I literally, I was going on like — really on fumes. And so other than those first probably — and of course you're at the highest high, and you're like, ‘Where do I go next?’ You know, you don't know what time of day it is, and things like that. But it's been all good. Like all of it, you know? You talk all the time about, you know, the journeys for your your players and you as a coach, you're on the same journey with them. And we get the mountaintop experience and so that would look like the press conference and that night and I got off the plane then the next day and you're walking, you have all these former OU players, and then they're all sitting right up there in front of you, doesn’t matter what you say, it’s, ‘YEAHHH!’ It was quite the experience, and you know, you're kind of a rock star for a few hours. But you know, for me, I've been preparing for this moment for such a long time. And it's not like, organically, I was sitting there saying, ‘OK, now I've got to remember this because one day I'm gonna have to use this.’ But I've just been very aware, paying attention to all of it. And so, you know, I was able to surround myself with so many incredible people, both — again, the administration that's there, and then the team of people from a coaching staff standpoint that I've been able to surround myself with to help me navigate. So I really haven't had ‘Oh hell’ — other than trying to find somewhere to live. That's been a very frustrating experience. Like, very frustrating. And kind of revealing sometimes. … Trust me now, I'm still a hamster on that wheel. There's so many things that, in a year from now, we're going to be an even better place. We're in a good place right now. But there's there's a lot of things that are going to change over the course of the next year — both on the field, off the field, staff, culture, you know, facilities, programs, just a lot of things that we're trying to get done right now that, you just can't snap your fingers and things like that are done. It's there actually has to be a process that you go through. So that's what we're doing right now.”

“Saved the recruiting class”

Joey Helmer of OU Insider asked about Bob Stoops holding things together and what Stoops meant to him personally during that time.

“Yeah, he was amazing. And I said this before, but his last month to six weeks, however long that was, just helping and just picking up all the the broken pieces, stabilizing the program, like you said, taking us to victory, man, might have been his best six weeks of his entire career under the circumstances. He’s fearless, courageous. never flinched, tough. Just, you know, the perfect man for the job. Obviously saved the recruiting class. Just a Hall of Famer and just an amazing, amazing person of strength and clarity. Standing for the right things. He's a simple guy, but he's a guy's guy. Just tremendous morals and principle. Just doing what's right. And great confidence.”

“... And we’re gonna pay for it”

Brandon Drumm of OU Insider asked Venables about his stance on NIL legislation and if he thinks Oklahoma is heading in the right direction.

“That’s fantastic. Why would that be a bad thing? There’s many guys come and they don’t have a way to get from A to B to C. They don’t have a car. I took out a loan. I walked on. I got a loan. Even after I got my scholarship, I was a Pell Grant recipient and I was maxed out. I took advantage of every loan there was. Because my family couldn’t give me any money. I wanted to have, like, a normal life as a young person growing up. I wanted to go on a date, I wanted to buy some clothes. So I took out a loan thinking I’m gonna get me a good job somewhere down the road and I can pay it back. And I did that until I was 37-38 years old, paying back student loans. So I get it. I totally get it. And we’ve made things better. The cost of attendance is a little more money in their pockets. We’ve finally smartened up on nutrition. Made no limits on nutrition. So that’s a good thing. Man, we’re gonna every player on our team in a brand new suit every year. Gonna bring in a tailor and measure ‘em up. Man, they deserve that. Gonna make ‘em put a coat and tie on and represent this university and themselves in the right way. And we’re gonna pay for it. We’re gonna give ‘em the best resources in the classroom and the things that go along with that, whether that’s a computer or iPad and all those types of things. They deserve the best resources, the best nutrition, the best facilities, the best sports science. Because we’re expecting them to meet our expectations. And I know — and everybody here on this call knows — what the expectations are here are at the University of Oklahoma. I know what those look like very clearly. So our commitment to them needs to exceed those expectations. Period.”