COLUMN: Why Brent Venables Coaching the Defense is Oklahoma's Best Available Choice

With realistic DC options now limited, Venables can take full control of the defensive side of the ball, turn the offense over to Ben Arbuckle and lean more on his staff for help.

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

So now we know. Brent Venables will be Oklahoma’s defensive coordinator in 2025.

There are a multitude of reasons why that’s a good thing for OU football, and a few reasons to fear it might not work.

First up, Jim Knowles isn’t walking through that door.

Knowles was Venables’ first choice after the great things he did at Oklahoma State and the national championship he fueled at Ohio State with college football’s best defense in 2024.

But Knowles looked into the OU opening and figured he was better off taking the job at Penn State. 

So Venables, with his hand-picked choice of Zac Alley having left for West Virginia in December, was suddenly limited in his options.

And he figured the best of those limited options was one he settled on with Saturday’s announcement: hire a linebackers coach in Nate Dreiling, add a defensive analyst in Wes Goodwin, and take over as defensive coordinator himself.

“I have reflected on all facets of our program over the past several weeks,” Venables said in a press release announcing the hires. “Since I was hired as head coach, we have carefully assembled the defensive personnel and scheme that is suited to compete at the highest level, and we've built a deep and talented roster ready for the moment. I have high expectations for our program and will do everything in my power to achieve our goals for our players. To that end, I will take over defensive play-calling responsibilities for the 2025 season.”

That’s a risk, to be sure.

At times during his first three seasons as a head coach, Venables has had moments — call it indecision, hesitation or just situational awareness — where his inexperience as the boss was exposed.

Now, as the Sooners’ full-time defensive coordinator, those shortcomings could very well crop up again this year.

For example, at the end of the first half against Texas, if OU needs to execute a two-minute drill on offense while managing timeouts and being ready on defense just in case the Longhorns get the ball back, what would Venables’ role be? He can’t simply sequester himself on the sideline with the defense like a traditional DC. He’ll need to stay on top of the game situation — timeouts, down and distance, the play clock, the game clock, possible substitutions, injuries and everything else that a head coach must focus on. Yet, he’ll also need to be talking to his defense, using his keen intellect and insights to prepare players for whatever situation Texas finds itself in, whether that’s at the 25 after a kickoff, or at the 40 after a punt return, whether that’s with 1:50 to play in the half, or with just 25 seconds.

Venables’ attention in situations like that will be split — diluted even. And a watered down football coach is not a good football coach.

If the offense faces a third-and-5 at their own 45, how does Venables tell new offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle that he has fourth down available to him if he can pick up 2-3 yards but don’t forget that the defense likes to blitz on third-and-medium and if it’s fourth-and-1 he should sub in a short-yardage jumbo package but if it’s fourth-and-3 he should think about a sprint option pass and the running back that got dinged up in the first quarter might still the best candidate to catch the football or the backup tight end that practiced all week but got hurt and didn’t make the trip and isn’t available — all while he’s talking to the defensive staff and players on the sideline?

That’s something Venables is going to have to work out with Arbuckle, and it’s something with which he might have to just trust his young OC — essentially turning over almost complete control of the offense to him: head coach of the offense.

Of course, that didn’t work out all that well in Venables’ first year as a head coach, 2022, when Venables was still mostly managing the defense alongside Ted Roof and giving offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby probably too much latitude and, too often, no oversight. Lebby had to be reminded more than once that running up-tempo plays while holding a small lead is not good game management.

Roof was Oklahoma’s defensive coordinator in name only. He called the signals on gameday, but it was Venables who had the final say over what personnel package was on the field and what coverage or what blitz or what stunts the Sooners ran.

This season, it sounds like Venables will have even more control — that is, total control — of the defense. Instead of Roof running through his list of Venables-approved calls, and instead of young Zac Alley making calls that he knows Venables would call, it’ll be Venables making all the defensive decisions.

And that means a lot more autonomy on offense for Arbuckle, a young, aggressive offensive mind who now needs to better understand the big picture, particularly game management. Winning the football game is ultimately more important than putting up flashy offensive numbers. So many young offensive coordinators, including Lebby, Lincoln Riley, Josh Heupel and others, were so laser-focused on their play-calling or attacking a defense that they stray from the easiest path to victory and need to be reminded — by their head coach — to take the foot off the gas, slow down, run the football, sub more often, take the delay penalty and save the timeout, or any of a number of scenarios that could actually help the opponent.

Time will be the final judge, but for Venables, in this place and time, this feels like the right move.

If OU falters again versus one of the nation’s most challenging schedules, none of it matters. Venables will likely be fired at end of the 2025 season. So this is Venables’ way of going down swinging. He knows he’s one of the game’s most brilliant defensive minds, and if him coordinating an experienced defensive unit makes Oklahoma that much better on defense, then so be it. Now, Roof won’t need to answer questions about who’s calling the plays, and Alley won’t have to explain why his head coach told him to do this or that. 

Now, the defensive buck stops with Venables.

If this was Venables’ way of going all-in with this hand, he did play a pretty good card with Saturday’s hires.

Dreiling, who’s been a defensive coordinator (and even an interim head coach last year at Utah State), can certainly lend a hand in that area.

But the real ace up Venables’ sleeve is Goodwin.

For three years, 2015-17, Goodwin worked for the Arizona Cardinals under Bruce Arians, where his title was Assistant to the Head Coach.

If there’s one thing Venables has needed at times over the course of his first three seasons back in Norman, it’s an assistant to the head coach.

Presumably, Goodwin, who worked under Venables for seven seasons at Clemson, will be a constant voice in Venables’ ear — whether that’s to remind him that his offensive coordinator is using up-tempo with a 10-point lead or has called nine straight pass plays, or that Texas still has two timeouts and the two-minute stoppage, or whatever. Or maybe, given what Clemson folks have said about Goodwin’s photographic memory and instant recall, maybe Goodwin will simply remind Venables of past scenarios that worked — or didn’t.

Fans who are understandably upset over Venables’ three-year record and especially his two losing seasons may have preferred that Venables turn his full attention to being the best head coach he can be and just hire an actual defensive coordinator.

That would seem to have been the ideal solution. But that creates more questions.

Across all of college football, is there an established defensive coordinator who wants to hitch his immediate future to Venables’ wagon? Venables is most certainly on the hot seat and, if that schedule is as fearsome as it looks, might very well be unemployed come December.

After three years of visible struggles, is Venables suddenly going to become a great head coach in Year 4 simply because he’s meddling a little less on defense?

Isn’t the best version of Venables the one that’s crouched down just outside the numbers getting yanked back by a burly assistant as he gyrates and screams at his players just before the snap? 

And wouldn’t the best version of the Oklahoma defense be the one that’s coached by arguably the best defensive coordinator in the country? 

Ultimately, given the big picture of where Sooner football has found itself, Venables coaching the OU defense exactly how he wants it and then turning the offense over to Arbuckle and then leaning on Goodwin and others for gameday assistance is Oklahoma’s best chance to get things turned around — and save Venables’ job.

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