First Look: Brent Venables Lands in Norman

Watch SI Sooners video of the former Oklahoma defensive coordinator at the airport; he's expected to be formally named head coach soon.

John E. Hoover | Dec 5, 2021

NORMAN — Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables flew from South Carolina to Norman on Sunday evening. SI Sooners shot video of Venables and OU athletic director Joe Castiglione as they deplaned before a crowd of fans, The Pride, Boomer and Sooner and the Sooner Schooner at Max Westheimer Regional Airport.

Venables, a former Oklahoma assistant under current interim coach Bob Stoops, will be formally named the 23rd head football coach at OU soon, possibly as early as Sunday night. He'll replace Lincoln Riley, who took the head job at USC last week.

Venables, 50, coached the Sooner defense from 1999-2011 and has spent the last 10 seasons at Clemson, where he won two national championships.

Published Dec 5, 2021

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.