Brent Venables fires back at question about lack of continuity in Oklahoma quarterback room

Oklahoma‘s fall over the past three weeks has been stark, with the Sooners dropping from No. 6 in the country to unranked with three straight defeats. Saturday’s 49-0 loss to Texas was brutal, in part because the Sooners started to feel the effects of a severely depleted Oklahoma quarterback room.

Starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel was out with a concussion, leaving junior backup Davis Beville in charge. It didn’t go well.

First-year coach Brent Venables was asked about the current state of college football when it comes to quarterbacks routinely jumping ship from program to program, something he seemed to think is a real problem.

“I just don’t think it has to be that way,” Venables said. “I think we understand why things took place here in that regard. I’m not writing the stories and I’m not even pointing fingers.

“We made a move with a freshman a year ago and the other guys decided to go elsewhere, but I don’t believe it has to be that way.”

Oklahoma, of course, lost 2021 starter Caleb Williams when head coach Lincoln Riley bolted for USC and the quarterback followed suit.

It also lost 2020 starter Spencer Rattler to the transfer portal.

Venables and his staff were able to snag Gabriel from UCF through the portal, as well as Beville, but the first-year coach lamented what he viewed as the fallout from those additions.

“To be honest we didn’t get the kind of; once we got Dillon we didn’t get the kind of reception because of maybe his success where he was,” Venables said.

Venables wants stability in Oklahoma quarterback room

It’s clear Venables would prefer a bit more continuity in the Oklahoma quarterback room, though whether that’s something that can be intentionally worked toward remains to be seen.

Regardless, he came equipped with examples of what he’s looking for on Tuesday.

“I see plenty of programs that have multiple really good quarterbacks,” Venables said. “Kansas is one of them, so how are they doing it? I don’t know. Maybe I need to ask coach (Lance) Leipold that, get a little wisdom from him.”

Oklahoma will face Kansas this week, with the Jayhawks fresh off their first loss of the season and now the loss of starting quarterback Jalon Daniels,* who was ruled out for the season with a Grade 3 separated shoulder on Tuesday.

There are other teams, too, that Venables is looking at as a model for quarterbacks sticking it out a bit longer.

“You see the guy like at Georgia, I think he walked on and then eventually got put on (scholarship) and there’s still a whole bunch of good quarterbacks on that roster and yet he’s the guy,” Venables said. “Somehow he kind of stuck to it and stuck with it, rather, and had some stick-to-it-ness and he became the guy and hasn’t let it go.”

Now, Georgia probably isn’t a perfect example. Prior to Stetson Bennett IV staking his claim to the starting job the Bulldogs had lost five-star Justin Fields to transfer when Jake Fromm beat him out; they also lost five-star USC transfer JT Daniels when Bennett beat him out.

Bottom line: continuity in quarterback rooms is hard to come by.

Still, Venables is bemoaning the lack of it at Oklahoma after a turbulent offseason. It’s hard to blame him for wanting more consistency.

“That’s what you want. You want to recruit to that and develop that,” he said. “We had to figure that out in a very small amount of time.”

* EDITOR’s NOTE: The original version of this story indicated Kansas quarterback Jalon Jones had been lost for the season, linking to a report that surfaced Tuesday on that topic. Daniels refuted the report later in the evening on Oct. 11, 2022 and this editor’s note was added to reflect that.