Brent Venables reveals conversation Dabo Swinney before kickoff in debut as Oklahoma head coach

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables made his head coaching debut this weekend for the Sooners as they took on UTEP. Venables was asked after his 45-13 victory over the Miners if there were any surprises in his coaching debut and spoke on how conversations with Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and others prepared him for the moment.

“I wouldn’t say necessarily by surprise, again I’ve got a good staff around me that’s non-stop trying to educate me. I ask a lot of questions, I’m not afraid to ask I’ve just always been that way, been this guy and then you know the guy next to you is like ‘Come on we’re trying to get over this’ and I’m always asking the questions. I want to know why or what and I spoke to coach Swinney this morning so we were joking around like ‘Hey you know what? Anything I need to know as a head coach game day,’ calling him two hours before kickoff or whatever,” Venables said.

Venables also referred to how conversations with former collegiate head coaches Bob Stoops and Matt Wells helped in his preparation for his new head coaching role.

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

“Then coach [Bob] Stoops stopped in during the week and he’s just coming by to fist bump, so I’m always tying to find out from people that have done it at the highest level. Certainly Matt Wells I have on staff, but I utilized all three of those guys this week and I have for several months. Just mentors and people that are doing what I wanna do and have had the kind of success I want to have, and so I’d be negligent in my opinion if I didn’t ask,” Venables said.

No surprises occurred for Venables in his debut, as he also applauded his staff and players for a seemingly stress-free first day on the job.

“So nothing really, I like having game control and having a kind of offense that we do that can put pressure on an opponent. But it was really fun for me today to try to sit back and listen and in some ways stress-free, at times very much stress-free, different kind of stress and the things from a leadership standpoint that I need to be there for everybody. So that was really a focus for me today and I thought tonight our staff did a great job, but most importantly our players, a tremendous amount of buy-in and engagement,” Venables said.

All offseason Venables has been talking about the tremendous buy-in he’s gotten from his players at Oklahoma in his first year. With his players invested and a group of solid mentors in his corner, Venables and the Sooners surely have high hopes for their week 2 matchup versus Kent State and the entirety of the season.

“As I told them this morning, this is one of the most committed teams I’ve been a part of and I don’t take that for granted, and I’ll call it out in a minute if it’s not what it’s supposed to be, but these guys have been from the moment we said go in December have bought into what we’ve asked them to do and have not questioned it at any point and time. Which I was surprised, I really felt that there would be some pushback, but our guys have been just terrific in buying into what we ask them to do, so really appreciate them, very thankful for them,” Venables said.