Brent Venables opens up about the benefit of having difficult conversations with players

First-year Oklahoma coach Brent Venables shared his unique perspective on how to have important, difficult conversations with his players. Venables answered questions at a press appearance on Tuesday, and explained how tough conversations are easier for him because he builds relationships with his players.

Brent Venables on having difficult conversations

“I don’t think the conversations are hard at all,” said Venables. “When people know your motives and you have relationships that are built — I think the conversations are very easy. I think in order to create change, there’s gotta be awareness, there’s gotta be action and then there’s gotta be accountability.

“And for us as a staff — and it could be changing anything, whether it has to do with football or not — there’s a real transformation that takes place when these young guys come here and they go to college. There’s a maturation process that we’ve gotta help facilitate. So that’s part of it. That’s actually one of the funnest parts of it — to be intimately involved with that change. And try to help them accomplish all of their goals.

“But you gotta have awareness, and then you gotta put together a plan of action and then you have to have accountability after that. Again, I don’t see the difficulty of having those conversations. That’s part of helping them take them to places that they can’t go on their own.”

Venables is already showing why Oklahoma chose to give the long-time defensive coordinator his first head coaching job. His hiring away from Clemson was a major bright spot as the Sooners dealt with the exit of Lincoln Riley to USC.

His focus on building a winning culture and strong program at Oklahoma will be a huge factor in their potential success in the immediate future and during their move into the SEC. Expectations are high as he inherits a 9-2 program that flirted with the College Football Playoff until late in the year when they lost two of their final three games.