SEC Day: Oklahoma's Brent Venables Tells Paul Finebaum of OU's 'Incredibly Important' Upcoming Season

On Monday's "Paul Finebaum Show," Venables described the urgency of 2024, the challenge of the schedule, his appreciation for a new contract and much more.

Paul Finebaum / Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Brent Venables can barely contain his excitement over the 2024 college football season.

Of course, that Venables in any year, with any team, against any league.

But Monday’s SEC Day festivities throughout the Sooner State and the prospect of playing for the first time as a member of the Southeastern Conference have Venables almost crackling with anticipation.

“This year’s obviously incredibly important,” Venables said Monday as the opening guest on “The Paul Finebaum Show. “We’ve worked very hard the last couple years to prepare for this moment. But what’s sitting in front of us right now is to try to put together the best roster that we can and have these guys as well prepared as we can.” 

Finebaum — the voice of the SEC — originated his show from the Norman campus as the SEC and SEC Network welcomed the Sooners as the 15th and 16th members of the most powerful conference in college sports.

Finebaum asked Venables about his recent contract extension, the rich tradition of the OU program, and where the Sooners stand as they step into the SEC in two months.

“You’re gonna figure out a lot, you’re gonna learn a lot in this transition,” Venables said. “But this isn’t as much about where we’re going as it is who we’re going in with. It’s not as much about proving people wrong as we are trying to prove each other right. We’ve worked really, really hard at both our program and our roster, the vision of our program, but the short term and the long term, to what we need to do to transition to the SEC. But, incredibly exciting.”

When Finebaum asked about the impending difficulty of Oklahoma’s schedule this fall, Venables couldn’t disagree.

“We recognize there will be several games that come down to the last drive of the game,” Venables said. “That’s the SEC top to bottom as you’ve taken the last several months to (assess) what’s in front of us right now. Looking at that league top to bottom, It’s incredibly competitive. Preaching to the choir, I know that. But what are the things it’s gonna take outside of just being good on your roster? All the efficiencies and things that it takes to win game, whether that’s turnover margin or four-minute or two-minute, all those types of things really are gonna play a huge part in this season. That’s something we recognize as we’ve been building our roster during the most tumultuous time in college football history from a stability standpoint. On our roster, we’ve worked hard to try to help ourselves in every area, but if your’e gonna win at the highest level in the SEC, you’re gonna win because of the trenches.”

Venables also expressed an appreciation to OU president Joe Harroz and athletic director Joe Castiglione for his two-year contract extension and raise last week that will pay him $51.6 million over six years.

“Two of the best leaders in all of college athletics,” Venables said. “Their belief in not only myself but all of our coaches, what we’ve been able to do in two short years, it’s everything. It’s gonna take everybody, and to have their endorsement at this time, going into the SEC, that means a lot to all of us.”

Finebaum said he’d spent Sunday in Austin talking to Texas players and coaches, and he came away with he impression that Texas is viewed as more ready for the SEC than Oklahoma despite the Sooners owning 14 Big 12 Conference championships, compared to just four for Texas.

Venables took the opportunity to reiterate why OU “takes a back seat to nobody” in the SEC or anywhere else.

“It’s one of the top five, legendary, iconic, winningest programs in the history of college football,” Venables said. “So this is a program — whether it’s the 47-game winning streak, the most conference championships in the history of college football, the national championships, all the Heisman Trophy winners, the countless players that are now in the hall of fame — both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame — the consensus All-Americans, you start going through the draft picks, all of that, things of that nature, this program stands on its own two legs. 

“And now you get elite matching up with elite: an elite program like Oklahoma has been for the last hundred years, matching up with the best brand and the best league in all of college football, the SEC.”