Brent Venables describes what went through his head during Oklahoma's game-winning drive vs. Texas
Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables earned his biggest win as the head coach of the Sooners last weekend as his team knocked off Texas 34-30 in the Red River Rivalry.
OU quarterback Dillon Gabriel led an impressive game-winning drive in the final minutes, which proved to be the difference.
Venables spoke earlier this week about what was going through his head as the Sooners marched 75 yards in 62 seconds for the win.
“Well, I was thinking about how much time was on that clock, and so which defense we were going to have to run out there,” Brent Venables explained. “I had all the confidence in the world we were going to score. I didn’t know if we were going to score a touchdown or not.”
Oklahoma needed a field goal to tie and a touchdown to take the lead when it got the ball back at its own 25 with 1:17 on the clock.
Gabriel found Oklahoma receiver Nic Anderson in the back of the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown to complete the five-play scoring drive. Ahead of the drive, Venables instructed the offense to be aggressive during the possession.
“I told them, ‘Hey, let’s go for the touchdown. Let’s don’t hold back,’” Venables recalled. “There’s risk involved with that in regards to turning the ball over and not getting an opportunity to play into an overtime, but really felt confident in that group. … The first drive of the second half was outstanding. And then we had like four drives that we were just off. So they got back into a great rhythm right away.”
Gabriel and the Oklahoma offense rewarded Venables’ confidence, putting together what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown drive.
Texas had one final shot as the Longhorns got the ball back at their own 25 with 15 seconds left. Venables had his defense ready, though, and the Sooners withstood a Hail Mary attempt to secure the win.
“Really, I was thinking about what defense that we were going to have based on how much time they had on the clock. So just trying to coach up a lot of guys that we went through things in fall camp, went through a few things in the last couple of weeks, to get ready for that moment,” Venables said about what he was doing during the Oklahoma offense’s final possession. “So you’re really just trying to make sure that those guys could execute. That’s really where my focus was, trying to stay in-tune to what was going on from a clock management and those things. But that’s what it was.”