Brent Venables details how goal line stands can change momentum of season

Oklahoma’s defense put together one of the biggest goal line stands of the season a few weeks ago, slamming the door on rival Texas from the one yard line four times in a row. Weeks later, as the Sooners remain undefeated, head coach Brent Venables discussed how such a moment can swing momentum not just in a game, but in a season.

And as Venables explained, it’s something of a cumulative process. One goal line stand builds the belief that more stops in tough situations can be had, and Venables has seen that growth in his squad.

“It creates belief. I think belief always comes before growth and for us to take the next step in what I’ve said is a long road, a long way to go, part of that process is developing a culture of expectation and a culture of belief and ‘This is how we do what we do.’ And certainly that permeates when it’s going well and it can permeate when it’s not going so well,” Venables said.

Venables also explained how those moments where the defense bows up and stops a team from punching in a score are borne from all 11 players working in perfect concert.

If even one player is in the wrong gap, playing the wrong coverage or misaligned, those moments that can be a boon for a defense might not even happen.

“So we had our opportunities. One guy who isn’t on the same page can affect all of it, and I think that was on display. But we’re, again, making the incremental improvement that you want and we’ll continue to be tested here through the course of the rest of the season. And hopefully our guys will continue to respond,” Venables said.

Venables also dished how he helps the defense in practice as scout team QB before playing Kansas

Kansas has played a couple of different quarterbacks this season due to injury as Jalon Daniels and Jason Bean have both received starts. To get ready to face the Jayhawks, the Oklahoma defense is seeing two scout-team quarterbacks — Venables and redshirt sophomore General Booty.

Venables spoke about his role as the scout-team QB earlier this week.

“General’s there, too, but we split reps,” Venables said. “They’ve got two, we’ve got two. General does a really good job – much better than me – at emulating what the precision and all those things might look like.”

Venables has served as the scout-team quarterback dating back to his days at Clemson.

Venables likes seeing what a quarterback will see as he goes up against his defense. While he’s doing the best he can to get his Sooners squad ready, he feels that slowing down Kansas will be tough to do. Jason Bean is expected to start against the Sooners as Jalon Daniels continues to deal with a back issue.

“You know, they’re excellent. They’re really good. And great systems. Again, they put a lot of stress on you because they’re multi-dimensional. They’re throwers and runners, both,” Venables said. “And their decision making [is good]. Super well-coached. Make very few mistakes. I think decision making and taking care of the football are the two most important qualities of a quarterback. They do both of those incredibly well.”