Brent Venables provides update on his wife's cancer battle

As Oklahoma readies for its 2023 season, coach Brent Venables is worried about battles on multiple fronts. His wife, Julie, is currently in a cancer battle after being diagnosed with breast cancer over the summer.

Venables provided a brief update on her condition ahead of the season on Tuesday.

“Julie, she’s doing good,” Venables said. “Probably looking at, at some point in time here in the near future, we’ll probably have to do some chemotherapy. But things have gone well up to this point, all things considered. Appreciate you asking.”

When Venables had last updated reporters on his wife’s cancer battle, the hope was that she would be able to avoid additional chemotherapy or radiation treatments.

ESPN wrote that doctors were ‘optimistic that the the cancer did not spread to Julie’s lymph nodes.’

Julie’s cancer battle began on June 16, when she was diagnosed. She then underwent an initial surgery on July 28.

“It’s been nothing short of amazing the group of people that have helped, whether it’s the doctors or administration, people I work with, our staff, our players, our players’ parents and certainly so many friends and the Sooner nation,” Venables said. “We’re hopeful that we got everything and we maybe can avoid further treatments.”

Brent and Julie have been married since 1997 and have four children together.

More info on Brent Venables

A widely respected defensive assistant coach for more than two decades, Venables made the leap to college football head coach in 2022 following the departure of Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley.

Riley bolted for the West coast and the USC job, leaving open the Oklahoma position.

Venables has plenty of roots in the midwest after playing his college football at Kansas State and working as an assistant coach both there and at Oklahoma.

The veteran assistant spent 1999-2011 in Oklahoma, where he was on staff for the program’s last national title in 2000. He then spent 2012-21 at Clemson, where he helped win another two national titles.

Venables went 6-7 in his first season as Oklahoma’s head coach in 2022.