Brent Venables explains why spring football games are important to him

Spring games are an enjoyable part of the month of April for college football teams and fans across the country. Although the actual season doesn’t start for another five months, spring games allow fans to get an early look at their teams – and it allows coaches and players to play in a game-like atmosphere with people in the stands cheering them on.

Brent Venables has been a part of many spring games throughout his coaching career, which includes 13 seasons as an assistant coach at Oklahoma and 10 more seasons as an assistant coach at Clemson. While Venables has been on the sidelines for a number of spring games, he’ll get to experience his first one as a head coach on Saturday, April 23 with his new Sooners’ club.

Meeting with the media last Friday, Venables was asked why he enjoys spring games so much – and he went in-depth on why he looks forward to them each and every season.

“One of my favorite things about being on a team, being a coach, the thing I love about my job is it’s very result-driven,” Venables said. “Although this is quote-on-quote ‘just a spring game,’ it’s an opportunity for us – as coaches – to quantify and measure improvement from the beginning to the end so that we can survey where our team is and what was good and what wasn’t so good, an opportunity for us to create some momentum going into our out-of-season program this summer.

“For me, that’s exciting – all of it. … The good days, the bad days, the good moments, the tough moments, the great plays, the bad plays – all of it really helps develop you, both good and bad. So, to watch our team mature and watch leadership develop through the course of the spring, to watch us improve fundamentally and do the little things right.”

Oklahoma’s annual spring game is scheduled to take place Saturday, April 23 at 4 p.m. ET at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman. Until then, the Sooners will continue to work through practices to prepare to play in front of their fans.