Bob Stoops on Brent Venables: 'He's what you want'

Brent Venables enters year three of his coaching tenure at Oklahoma with a catch — they’ve joined the SEC.

After an impressive 2023 campaign, there’s a lot of buzz surrounding the Sooners program as they enter a new era in OU athletics. Former head coach Bob Stoops, who appeared on the SEC Network live from Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, explained why Venables is the right man to lead the Sooners into their new conference.

“Brent [Venables] has amazing, great passion and energy, connects so well with players in all the right ways,” Stoops said on Monday. “I just got total faith that he’s going to continue to build this program positively and in a great way. I’m looking forward to it. But I have a long history with Brent from recruiting him, to a player, to coaching with him here for 13 years. He’s what you want and he’ll do a great job as well as his staff.”

This faith is reinforced by the fact that Venables received a six-year, $46 million extension last week.

In two seasons, Venables has posted a record of 16-10 overall. The improvement from year one to year two, though, was clear as the Sooners went from 6-7 in his debut season to 10-3. Development on both sides of the ball were obvious for Oklahoma in 2023. They went from 32.8 ppg. (33rd) to 41.7 ppg. (4th) on offense while also going from allowing 30 ppg. (90th) to 23.5 (49th) on defense.

Fast forward to 2023 where Sooners started out 7-0, which included a win over archival Texas Longhorns. Reaching as high as No. 6 in the AP Poll, a pair of losses took them out of the national race but still finished the regular season at 10-2 before a season-ending defeat to Arizona in the Alamo Bowl.

Venables has also been recruiting at a national level for the program. All three of his classes that he is credited with so far have been in the Top-10 of On3’s Football Team Recruiting Rankings, including at as high as No. 6 in 2023. 2025 is on pace to do the same as it currently sits at No. 10.

The wait to join the SEC may be over, but Sooners won’t begin conference play until Week 4 when they host Nico Iamaleava and the Tennessee Volunteers. However, the season will begin on Aug. 30 when the Sooners host Temple.