Report: Brent Venables received fully guaranteed contract from Oklahoma

Brent Venables’ return to Oklahoma to become the head coach was one of the highest-profile coaching changes of the 2022 cycle. Friday night, The Athletic reported his full contract details.

Oklahoma gave Venables a six-year, $43.5 million fully guaranteed contract, The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel reported via a copy of the contract he obtained. He’ll make $7 million this season — his first as the Sooners’ head coach — and will receive $100,000 escalators every year until his deal runs out Jan. 31, 2028. If he leads Oklahoma to a national title, he’ll receive a $400,000 bonus.

Additionally, if Oklahoma decided to fire Venables after just one season, the Sooners would pay $36 million to do so. Mandel noted that’s “extremely unlikely,” but the clause remains in the contract. Another clause states Venables must make “reasonable, continued and diligent efforts” to look for a new job in coaching or broadcasting to take the amount owed down based on his new salary.

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If Venables was to voluntarily leave for another job, though, he’d pay a buyout of $7 million after year one and that number drops $2 million every year until it gets down to $2 million in 2025.

Oklahoma is 4-3 amid Venables’ first season back in Norman since he was an assistant under Bob Stoops. The Sooners halted their three-game losing streak last week by defeating Kansas, and that marked the program’s first three-game skid since 1998. Oklahoma is currently on a bye week and will get the schedule started again next week against Iowa State.

The future at OU looks bright from a roster standpoint, though. The Sooners currently have the No. 6-ranked recruiting class for the class of 2023, according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking, meaning Venables is doing work on the trail. Five-star quarterback Jackson Arnold leads the group as the No. 13 player in the country, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.