Column: Brent Venables Talks Offensive Coordinator: Scheme, Personality, Work Habits and More

The Sooners' head coach said he wants to hire someone who runs an efficient system and aligns with his beliefs and values, but "we're not looking for a choir boy."

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables / John Reed-Imagn Images

NORMAN — Imagine the information that Brent Venables must sift through before he hires his next offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.

Start with the new guy’s scheme. What system does he run? What are his tendencies? And for that matter, what does Venables prefer as he tries to build out a complete program? 

There are more variations of college football offenses than there are flavors of ice cream, so that’s a big one.

But just as important as the offensive system itself is the man who’s running it.

What personal qualities does Venables want? What are his work habits? What do his co-workers say about him? What do his bosses say about him? Who are his references? What coaching tree does he come from? Where has he competed? Did he play college football? Did he play quarterback? And does Venables prefer a young guy with fresh, new ideas? Or someone older, with more experience, who is more established?

“You just check, check, check, check,” Venables told me Tuesday at his weekly press conference, checking off the imaginary boxes on his imaginary wish list with an imaginary pencil.

“Not looking for a choir boy,” Venables said. “But also … we get to choose, and so we want to find someone that aligns with a belief system and a value system that we share. But at the same time, can we get better through this?” 

Venables said he’s looking for a “fit” and doesn’t have a preference about older or younger, energetic or experienced, established or novice.

“You certainly want people that, (those) they've worked with have good things to say about ‘em, their leadership style, their energy, what kind of a teammate are they, their toughness, their ability to recruit, their ability to adapt, their humility, the things that they value,” Venables said. “With all that, maybe it doesn't all have to fit in a nice, tight, tidy box, either. 

“But maybe, what did they play in college? Did they play in college? Some of the best ones never even played in college. So again, you always have a perspective with all of it. And then, where have they been? What does the tape say? Have they been able to be successful with the hand that they've been dealt? So you look at all of that.

“And I think it's important that, wherever they come from, people have good things to say — 'Hey, oh, and another thing.' 

As for the scheme itself, Venables says he doesn’t have a defined preference about tempo or spread or air raid or West Coast or pro style or pistol or read option or run-and-shoot — although he did recently say Oklahoma won’t be running the wishbone any time soon.

“It’s one that’s efficient,” Venables said, “that’s going to attract great players, that has a reputation in a scheme-friendly system that's going to attract great quarterbacks and skill guys, running backs, tight ends, receivers. I think that's really important. How can we win? What style of offense that we can win (with) in this league? You look at the styles through the years that have been successful — and we've seen them all — something that you know that can transition quickly with the roster that we have.”

That’s a big one, too: is it something Jackson Arnold can operate next year? Is he familiar with the schemes and the terminology and the concepts, or will he have to learn an entirely new playbook in 2025?

For that matter, does Arnold even come back to Oklahoma next year? And if not, do the Sooners start mining the transfer portal for a quarterback who is comfortable in or experienced with the new offensive coordinator and his system? Does OU mess with a great dual-threat talent if the new coordinator favors a pro style? Does the new coordinator alter his scheme to fit that player, or vice versa, or is it somewhere in the middle?

“We do know that you can quickly change a roster through the current systems that we have in college football,” Venables said, “but something that gives you the right kind of balance, run, pass, efficiency, ball control, explosiveness, quarterback-friendly … To me, systematically, you don't have to have a generational, 5-star, best-quarterback-in-the-portal every year to have a really successful, efficient offense that gives us a chance to win our conference, compete at the highest level, to be an offense that can do its part to help us get to the playoffs and win.

“I don't mind having a generational, 5-star, best-guy-in-the-country quarterback,” he added, “but something that maybe people have proven, have some type of a track record that shows: if we lose that guy, this is an offense that still produces and puts stress on the defense and scores points, moves the ball. Yardage may or may not be important. Again, we look at the things I just said: efficiency in all the right spots, good in the red zone, good on third, fourth down, has good ball control, can make all the explosive plays, can win games, do the things that’s necessary to win games. But I like an offense that has some flexibility and can win different ways. 

“So if that looks like five wides, that looks like Ninja, if that looks like i-backs, if that looks like 13 and 14 personnel, that looks like 12 personnel — all things are certainly under consideration. But again, I look at what it takes to win and compete in our league, against the best teams.”

To that end, Venables looked back on Saturday’s dominant win over Alabama, in which the Sooner defense limited the Crimson Tide to just 234 total yards and 3 points, while the OU offense ran the football 50 times and threw it just 12. Ball control and winning the line of scrimmage were the priorities last week.

“I think that's a great way to win,” Venables said. “I don't think, 'Oh, that hasn't been in alignment with what we wanted before.' I think this staff has done a really good job the last month of taking kind of a messy situation for all the right reasons — not just, ‘OK, Coach Venables made a mistake,’ if you will. I hired the wrong guy. It obviously wasn't the right guy. That's not centered on Seth (Littrell). I failed, and I own that. That's not earth shattering news. OK, what do I got to do to fix it? So what do we have to do as a staff now?”

Tight ends coach and co-offensive coordinator Joe Jon Finley has adjusted nicely to his new duties calling plays, and offensive analyst Kevin Johns has transitioned well to quarterbacks coach.

The way Arnold played Saturday night — decisive and aggressive in the run game (131 yards rushing) and judicious in the pass game (9-of-11 through the air for just 68 yards) — showed he can adapt to changes in the game plan from week to week. 

He — and, presumably, his prep work with Johns and Finley — also showed that he can take coaching. A handful of his rushes started out as pass plays, but, with an increasingly inexperienced receiver corps and an offensive line that’s still getting better, Arnold frequently pulled the ball and took off when his first read wasn’t open.

"I think this staff had done a really good job with trying to figure that out, get better every week, put together a great game plan, but also figure out OK, what does this group of guys, what does this team, what do we need to do? And what do we need to do this week? Because what we need to do this week might be different than what we needed to do, or what we could do, a week ago. That's just the facts. That's just — week in, week out, it might be a little bit different.” 

Venables applauded Saturday’s “physicality, the precision, the discipline” and said he appreciates that victory can be achieved “lots of different ways. 

"You can throw the ball efficiently and then run it when you need to. We ran the ball really efficiently and then we threw it when we needed to. We stayed on schedule. At the end of the day, stayed on schedule. We know there's different ways that you can do that. You want to play to your players' strengths and maybe what this week's game plan can present based on who you're playing, too. 

“I think that's the art of having a system that's adjustable, flexible, adaptable, week in and week out, but also has an identity: Toughness. Physicality. You've gotta be able to run the ball at every level of football, but you do have to throw it. You can't just do one thing. But we need to be efficient.”