How Brent Venables Plans for Oklahoma to Be Better on Third and Fourth Down

The Sooners weren't good in clutch situations on offense or defense last year, so Venables says the coaches and players need to create the right mental environment.

NORMAN — Brent Venables insists Oklahoma can be better on third and fourth down — on both offense and defense — simply by rehearsing and emphasizing those scenarios in practice.

“I believe in living and dying in that moment,” Venables said. “I believe in that.”

But there’s nowhere in practice like Saturday night, when you’re down three points with two minutes to go and you’re fighting for bowl eligibility and there’s 80,000 fans wound up into an absolute twist and the other team has been stuffing it down your throat all night — or all season.

OU’s numbers in clutch situations last year were not good by any metric: 49th nationally on third down conversions, but 112th on fourth down (37.9 percent). Defensive numbers revealed some painful similarities: 87th nationally at getting off the field on third down (40.9 percent) and 61st on fourth down (50 percent).

It’s the No. 1 reason why the Sooners were 0-5 in close games last year, and why they finished with their first losing record in a generation. When the time came, OU either couldn’t get off the field on defense, or couldn’t stay on the field on offense.

Cranking up the music and screaming at the players and adding incentives at practice is one thing. And coaches can do it over and over throughout the week in padded practices.

The importance and gravity of trying to win on gameday can’t be replicated on Wednesday afternoon.

“You can’t? Yeah you can. Yeah you can,” Venables said. “And I believe it starts with the coaches. If it ain’t game 7 mentality from the coaches, then it ain’t going to be for the players. If it ain’t the biggest third- and fourth-down period that you’ve had in your entire life as a coach, in that moment, then it’s not going to be for the players.”

Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby and defensive coordinator Ted Roof were both asked what area from last year needs to improve the most.

Both said third- and fourth-down efficiency.

“You want to improve in every area, and we've got to improve in every area,” Roof said, “but if you look at things, those are the biggies — the red-zone defense and third and fourth-down defense. So those are the areas as far as the ones that stick out the most.”

“The immediate, obviously, is just third down and fourth down,” Lebby said. “We’ve got to be better in those situations. We spent a lot of time on that in the offseason, last spring, through the summer.”

That’s the hangup. Telling your offense it’s now third-and-6 in practice in April can’t possibly carry over to November when the clock is running out and the cameras are glaring at you and it’s raining in Morgantown and the Mountaineer faithful smells fear.

At some point, somebody just needs to make a play.

“Well,” Roof said, “it certainly is emphasized, and you work it every day in practice on that, different situations, as far as what your assignment is and what you expect to see in certain third down situations.”

Third and fourth down are the money downs, of course, but Roof, Lebby and Venables said they’re easier to manage if everyone plays better on first and second down.

“The more success you have on earlier downs, the higher your percentage is to be better on third and fourth down,” Roof said.

“We’ve talked about this a ton,” said Lebby, “but the best third down is not getting to third down, being great on first and second down, obviously. Again, those guys understanding the heightened urgency inside those situations and being able to go out and produce over and over again and keep us on the field.”

To Venables, though, it sounds like success on clutch downs is less about preparation and more about attitude.

And there’s the connection: players and coaches have to practice the attitude as much as the situation, if not more.

“I believe in that atmosphere and I believe that coaches create that,” Venables said. “That’s my belief and that’s our job to create that environment, to create that buy-in, to create that response, to create that sense of urgency and create that sense of desperation. That’s how you chase excellence. And you can’t compromise that. You create that.

“We’re in a different spot, we’re in a better spot than I think we were 12 months ago when it comes to and understanding what we’re trying to create on that practice field. That’s gotta be, everybody’s practicing, everybody’s got that same 20-hour week, 8-hour week in the offseason. Everybody’s got the same, so, how do we make it a competitive advantage? How can we be better? And again we’re right back here (mentally). So, I believe you can. I believe you can. You create great pressure. You create a winner-loser environment. You quantify that. And recruit to that. If guys don’t want to be coached in that moment, ‘It’s just practice or it isn’t that big of a deal’ and that’s not it either. We’ve got to find the right guys that believe in that, have that type of a mindset, that kind of hunger and drive to be the best. And that’s how I think you do it on the practice field. Like everybody at every level of football is constantly creating situational football. It’s a notable thing. But to me it starts with … first and 10. Win early to win late. I tell the DB in press technique, ‘You’ve got to win early, if you lose at the line, it’s a wrap. You’re going to watch his butt score a touchdown.’

“And I believe on defense you’ve got to win on first down and be efficient. You can’t live on second-and-6, second-and-5, second-and-4. I tell the players all the time, the play caller is as good as that second down. What’s that second down look like? And it’s the same thing on the other side of the ball. If we’re constantly looking at second-and-10, that’s a hard place to live to on offense. We’re not making plays down the field, incomplete passes in the short passing game or whatever, that matters. We’ve got to get in a rhythm.

“Win early so you can win late. So, that plays into the efficiency as well. Next thing you know it’s 3rd and 1, 4th and 1 and we’re not physical as we need to be, we’re not where we need to be from a physicality standpoint, you’re gonna get beat up. And we got beat up way too many times last year and we got to get better a lot physically. We’ve got to get better earlier, too. We’ve in every spot, there’s no area where we don’t have to improve. I’ll say that no matter what the rankings are and the stats say, whether they’re really good and everybody loves what they read or it’s really bad like it was.”