Brent Venables talks state of recruiting across college football

Oklahoma football coach Brent Venables is ready for recruiting season. The first-year Sooners head man knows the summertime is one of the most important periods with many high school seniors-to-be getting ready to make their commitments.

Venables spent his past 10 seasons as the defensive coordinator for Dabo Swinney at Clemson, where he was heavily involved in building the Tigers’ recruiting classes. While in that role, he watched as the process developed over the past decade and has become quite accustomed to the ins and outs.

He hopes to bring that expertise with him to Norman as he gets to work building his first class as a head coach.

“I think the biggest thing is the change in the calendar from a recruiting official visits standpoint since you can take visits thing spring and in the early part of the summer for a few weeks into June,” Venables said recently. “You’re gonna see an influx by that third week of June. Man, you’re gonna see commitments left and right. Then there will be another small window in late July because it opens up briefly before the dead period in August. Then kids again have got spring sports — basketball goes a little late and then track starts up. You’re trying to find time to get to a bunch of different spots unofficially with the idea of, ‘OK I’m gonna go see ’em once or twice then go back for an official visit in the early part of the summer.’ So just being loyal to that process with the idea again being early summer.”

Brent Venables so far has just five players committed to Oklahoma’s 2023 recruiting class. That includes four-star quarterback Jackson Arnold, who ranks as the No. 34 overall player in the class according to On3 Consensus.

The Sooners hosted several prospects on official visits this past weekend, and have four more scheduled for this Friday. That includes four-star receiver Cole Adams — a local product out of Owasso — and EDGE defender Colton Vasek. You can view the full list of Oklahoma’s past and future official visits here.

Venables knows many of those players are on the verge of making their decision, so is doing everything in his power to ensure the visits go according to plan.

“You can do official visits earlier, so many of the kids are putting off their decision,” he said. “They’re not waiting until December, but they’re waiting more until just prior to their senior year. They’re disciplined and committed to waiting for that. For us, we want to be patient in the process. The last thing we want is guys committing and then decommitting and having buyer’s remorse. You want to be right come December or February.”

As of now, Oklahoma’s five-man class ranks as the third-best in the Big 12 and 21st overall according to On3’s Team Rankings. After this summer, Venables is hopeful that number will rise thanks to the effort he put in on official visits.