Brent Venables calls Oklahoma's loss to South Carolina 'nothing remotely close to the standard'

Oklahoma was out of it early in their 26-point loss last weekend to South Carolina. That led to the regret that Brent Venables had afterward for the outing by OU.

Venables wasn’t proud of the Sooners’ performance in their 35-9 loss to the Gamecocks in Norman on Saturday. It did not match what they are as a program and, for that, it’s his job to correct it.

“What we put out there today as a football team is nothing remotely close to the standard here at the University of Oklahoma. Certainly not what we planned for today,” Venables said postgame. “My job as a head coach is to evaluate everything, figure it out, and find a way to put us in a better position to be successful.”

Again, Oklahoma was already down at 21-0 after the opening quarter, including two defensive scores off a fumble recovery and a pick-six, and 24-0 by the start of the second. They then extended it to 32-3 by halftime. The Sooners would only cut into that deficit by three in the second half for the final margin.

South Carolina dominated defensively by forcing four turnovers and posting nine sacks. In the end, it was actually an outing that led to a staff change.

Still, despite the loss, Venables approved of how his team continued to battle in the blowout.

“Incredibly proud of the fight in our players,” said Venables. “To give yourself a chance to come back and make it a game? We’ve got to be a heck of a lot better. Again, I thought the willingness of our players to come out the second half and fight and compete like they did to give us a chance? They did that. A lot to overcome.”

“Incredibly hurt for our players,” Venables said. “Again, I know how much they prepared, how hard they fought, how much they’ve put in to not only today but, certainly, this season but this is a game that’ll punish you for, you know, the smallest mistakes.”

With the loss, Oklahoma is now at 4-3 overall, including 1-3 in the SEC. All three have been by double digits with the last two coming by an average margin of 28.5.

Even so, that’s life now in the Southeastern Conference. All Oklahoma can do from here is adjust, especially now offensively, for the final five games of their season – which currently features four league opponents currently ranked.

“The competitiveness of this league, the parity of this league? There is no margin for error,” said Venables. “So we’ll need everybody to have a chance to finish the year in a better way.”

“This will be a group of guys that’ll rebound and a staff that’ll continue to fight and find a way to put our players in a better position than what we did today.”