Brent Venables on hiring former Sooners, founding SOUL mission

Brent Venables is introducing something new to Oklahoma: the SOUL mission. The first-year Sooners football coach recently announced the creation of the in-house program that will employ former OU stars to serve as mentors to current players on the team.

Josh Norman, Curtis London and Caleb Kelly will lead the SOUL mission, which Venables, associate head coach Todd Bates and director of player personnel JR Sandlin came up with over dinner one evening.

“It’s a leadership initiative program,” Venables explained. “As you know, it’s all encompassing. Their manhood, mentorship, there’s a spiritual aspect. Shame on us if we don’t provide opportunities for young people to grow in their faith. I’m not here to save everybody, but I do have values in that I’m a Christian. It’s all voluntary. That’s the other cool thing. The staff is at every practice and meeting. They’re very intertwined in our players’ lives. I remember as a young person getting ready for my last year in college, I was so scared. There wasn’t somebody I could go to and say, ‘How do I know what I’m good at?’ The answer to that was to go see the career development officer. And I don’t know them. Having an in-house staff that can major in those areas, which it’s not just the career, it’s a lot of things. It’s a mental health aspect that’s very real. It’s time management.”

Brent Venables said he first got the idea for the SOUL mission after seeing something similar at Clemson. He spent the past 10 years as the Tigers defensive coordinator before accepting the head coaching job with the Sooners this offseason. The coach hopes to win plenty of games in Norman, but he said the main goal of the program is to impact lives outside of football as well.

“For me, I was like ‘That’s gotta be the backbone of the program,'” he said. “Because if you make it all about winning and chasing championships, that’s gonna be a very empty, unfulfilling journey. You can be dysfunctional and really good. I think some of the best of the best programs, when they focus only on winning, they’re exactly that. We have an opportunity to have some generational change if we can keep the main thing the main thing. That’s equipping these young people and pouring life into them. Making sure that we’re not just asking the right questions, but putting the right resources and people where they need to be.”

That is precisely why Venables wanted to turn to former Sooners to lead the charge.

Kelly played six seasons for Oklahoma including this past year, but suffered a knee injury in November to end his college career. Venables said he knew he wanted to keep the linebacker involved going into next year, and tabbed him a perfect fit for what OU is trying to accomplish with the SOUL mission.

With him in charge along with London and Norman, Venables knows the players are in good hands.

“The first time I met Caleb Kelly, I was like ‘That guy’s got a story that needs to be heard.’ He’s a connector. His best asset is he’s a relational person. He’s got this amazing story, but he also has a heart for people. The light inside of that guy, I saw that within the first 30 seconds. I said, ‘I gotta get that guy in the SOUL mission.'”

Oklahoma will play its first game of the Brent Venables era against UTEP on Sept. 3.