Brent Venables shares hilarious story of first staff meeting with Mike Leach, Mark Mangino

Brent Venables considers himself lucky that his staff at Oklahoma seems to have gotten off on the right foot. In a press conference prior to the start of spring practice, the first-year Sooners head coach said his assistant coaches fit together “like a glove.”

Venables, who was also a linebackers coach and defensive coordinator at OU from 1999-2011, knows firsthand that isn’t always the case. He was a member of Bob Stoops’ first coaching staff in 1999, along with fellow future head coaches Mark Mangino and Mike Leach.

Venables remembers the introductory coaches meeting from that year, and how those two got off to a rather rocky start when discussing their differing offensive philosophies.

“Our staff development time was done over at the Residence Inn, usually in Mangino’s room,” Venables recalled. “He was the Godfather. Our first staff meeting at Oklahoma, it was the first time that Mangino and Mike Leach were talking ‘ball.’ Leach, he’s a man of few words. Coach Stoops was introducing everybody and he introduced coach Mangino as the run game coordinator and co-offensive coordinator. Somehow, we got onto ball plays and one of the staples of Mark Mangino’s offense is to run the Power. You block down the double and then you kick out and pull the guard around. The Power was not in Mike Leach’s offensive playbook. So after Mangino tells him what he’s going to practice and how he can’t wait to put that into the spread concept. Leach is standing there with his coffee and he says, ‘Well you can practice it all you want. I’m not calling it in a game.’ So that didn’t go off very well, but as y’all know it ended pretty good. One year later we win the national championship.”

Leach left Norman after just one season to begin his head coaching career at Texas Tech. He has since gone on to become well-known for his Air Raid offense, and is still hesitant to run the ball, as his teams have averaged under 100 yards rushing each of the past five seasons. Mangino stayed at Oklahoma until 2002, when he was named the head coach at Kansas and later led the Jayhawks to an Orange Bowl victory.

Brent Venables became the defensive coordinator at Clemson in 2012, where he would work on Dabo Swinney’s staff for the next 10 seasons. He helped lead the Tigers to national championships in 2016 and 2018 before taking his first head coaching job with the Sooners this offseason.

Venables has since put together a solid coaching staff for next season, bringing in rising Ole Miss offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby and former Duke head coach Ted Roof. He also retained longtime assistants Cale Gundy and Bill Bendenbaugh, as well as former Sooners running back DeMarco Murray.

The expectation in Norman is always to compete for championships, and Venables is certain he has the right coaches in place to do just that. He will get his first chance to show what he has been working on when the Sooners host their annual spring game on April 23.