Brent Venables explains why local Oklahomans will captain Bedlam game

Ahead of an annual rivalry matchup with in-state foe Oklahoma State, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables made a decision: All his captains would be players from the state of Oklahoma. He explained his thinking behind it at his Tuesday press conference.

The main criteria was that the players picked as captains still had to hold the respect of the locker room, Venables said. But he knows how important it might be to represent the State of Oklahoma for a player who grew up in the state watching the Bedlam Game.

“What played in to it is: guys that are respected, that are from the State of Oklahoma. And having grown up in the State of Oklahoma, they have a different type of value, maybe, for Bedlam. So it’s a big deal, and represent their state. And that’s — nothing more, nothing less,” Venables said.

The five native Oklahomans picked as captains for Saturday: Ethan Downs, Trace Ford, Gavin Freeman, Drake Stoops and Gentry Williams.

And for Ford, Saturday could have even more meaning, as he transferred from Oklahoma State to the Sooners ahead of the 2023 season.

Ford’s former coach kept things close to the chest about the inter-rivalry transfer

Speaking about the move at Big 12 Media Days before the season, Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy didn’t have a lot to say.

Mostly, though, he was unperturbed by the idea of a rival-to-rival transfer. In the current paradigm of college football, Gundy wasn’t surprised that one of his players might be a Sooner a year later.

“Nothing surprises me anymore in college football,” Gundy said. “Hopefully he’s healthy and can finish his career strong.”

Ford had missed the final four games of the 2022 season with an injury after starting the first nine. He played four years at Oklahoma State before making his transfer to Oklahoma this offseason. He had also missed the 2021 season due to injury.

Venables isn’t thinking about the past, this season or further

After sensationally defeating Texas 34-30 on Oct. 7, the Sooners fended off UCF 31-29 before the floor collapsed beneath them, losing to Kansas on the road 38-33 on Oct. 28.

Taking a loss against the Jayhawks, a lesser opponent on paper, directly following what will likely be Oklahoma’s best win of the season is a terrible look for the Sooners. However, Venables isn’t buying that claim that OU is suffering any sort of ‘Texas hangover,’ and believes his team was a few plays away from remaining undefeated.

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. I don’t look at it like that,” Venables said on Tuesday. “I just look at what we need to do to get better. What we need to do well this week, you know? That’s how I look at it. When we celebrate, maybe they don’t get as many clicks or likes or whatever as it does when you play Texas. But we put a lot of work into the course of a week and certainly going into the season. When you have some success, you want to celebrate it and then you want to move on. That’s what a good mature team can do.”