Brent Venables discusses the aftermath of Lincoln Riley's departure

With the 2022 season right around the corner, the wounds from the breakup between Oklahoma and Lincoln Riley are as close to mended as they’re going to get. Hiring Brent Venables to take over in Norman definitely helped, but Oklahoma and Riley are ready to get their years rolling without the other. For Venables, he says he has seen little to no hard feelings from the Sooners to this point.

Venables discussed his team’s resolve in an interview with ESPN’s Chris Low regarding the situation involving former WR coach Cale Gundy. That trickled down to the departure of Riley for USC as well. In the end, he says the fallout with Riley has only made his players and, in turn, his program stronger.

“There was a little bit of a locker room that was confused, hurt and fragmented. Maybe because of the success offensively, but not as much defensively, and fragmented because the leader of the program just left them out of nowhere,” said Venables. “So, yes, it was an emotional locker room, but what’s been exciting to me is the hunger and the edge they’ve shown since we’ve been here. It’s been incredible and been that way since January…The harder we’ve made it, the better they’ve responded.”

It would be hard to expect the Oklahoma players to not feel any outrage about what happened with Riley. One minute they were a program that went 54-10 in Riley’s five years. The next minute he was off to coach the Trojans with not so much in the form of a farewell. While a transition is never simple, Brent Venables says his team took it in stride. They bought into his program quickly with no signs of privilege based on their former success.

“There’s been no pushback or no ‘Well, this is how we’ve done things in the past.’ These guys are willing to be led and, for a program that’s been to four of the last seven playoffs, there’s been no entitlement,” Venables said. “They could (say), ‘You know, we’ve been winning a lot. What are you going to tell us?’ But it hasn’t been that way at all.”

Both sides are surely ready to leave all the drama in the offseason when it comes to the other. Riley will have his chance to continue to compete from the Pac-12. Meanwhile, Venables and his roster have as good a chance as any team to win the Big 12. In the end, even the nastiest of breakups heal over time. As long as they don’t cross paths any time soon on the field, both parties are ready to keep moving.