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Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables Earns Another National Award

After the Sooners toppled No. 7 Alabama on Saturday night, Venables and his team have landed several national accolades.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables talks with Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer.
Oklahoma coach Brent Venables talks with Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer. / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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PRESS RELEASE

After leading the Oklahoma Sooners to a 24-3 win over No. 7 Alabama on the Sooners’ senior night, Brent Venables has been selected as the Bear Bryant Awards Fan Favorite Coach of the Week.

The award is named for former Alabama coaching legend Paul "Bear" Bryant, who retired as the winningest coach in major college football.

After falling behind 3-0 in the first quarter, the Sooners reeled off the game’s final 24 points and in doing so, held a top-10 team to three or fewer points for the first time in 20 years – the last time being in a 12-0 win over No. 5 Texas in 2004. The win marked the first time an unranked Oklahoma team has beaten a top-10 opponent at home since 1990.

The Sooners became the first team to hold Alabama without a touchdown since 2011, and the first to limit the Crimson Tide to three or fewer points since 2004. Oklahoma held Alabama to 234 yards of total offense while rushing for 257.

The win makes Oklahoma bowl eligible for the 26th consecutive season, the second-longest bowl eligibility streak in the nation.

The selection of Venables follows last week’s selection of Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham, Georgia Tech’s Brent Key, Louisville’s Jeff Brohm, the co-selection of Texas A&M’s Mike Elko and Kennesaw State’s Brian Bohannon, Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Oregon’s Dan Lanning, Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea, Kentucky’s Mark Stoops, Tennessee’s Josh Heupel, and Washington State’s Jake Dickert. Continuing through the remainder of the regular season, the Paul “Bear” Bryant Awards will recognize a coach weekly for leading their team to an exceptional victory.

The American Heart Association, a global force for healthier lives for all, presents the Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Awards annually to celebrate excellence in coaching, to honor Coach Bryant’s legacy and to raise awareness and critical funds for their mission. The coaching legend died from a heart attack in 1983, just 28 days after his final victory and retirement. 

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John E. Hoover
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.

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