Brent Venables opens up about NIL usage in recruiting nowadays

Name, image and likeness has been front and center this latest recruiting period. Coaches around the game are talking about its impact — and Oklahoma coach Brent Venables was among them.

Venables opened up about his approach to using NIL in recruiting. It’s been a particularly hot-button issue after Jackson State coach Deion Sanders flipped No. 1 overall recruit Travis Hunter from Florida State to the Tigers amid rumors of NIL deals.

During his National Signing Day press conference on Wednesday, Venables addressed how he thinks NIL should be used in recruiting.

“I’ll be honest, I believe that you need to use it to your advantage in every way that you possibly can within the rules, but that shouldn’t be the focus of your program,” Venables told reporters. “We want to attract players and families that are looking for all of it. The holistic piece. In my experience … when the focus is all on just ball and now just the short-term money, again, everybody has their different situations. Families have their different situations, institutions do. But if that’s where all the focus is, then maybe those values don’t align.

“We want to be able to provide in an advantageous way opportunities for our guys to enhance all those opportunities, all within the rules. So I think we got to do a good job of knowing what [those are] because I think there’s some creativity that you see that’s going [on] across college football. My hope is that we all continue to stay in the front of it from an educational standpoint, the dos and the don’ts and continue to do more about it, and I think the NCAA’s learning more and more about it, too, to be quite honest.”

Recruiting during the NIL era

Even last year, as NIL deals were allowed under NCAA rules, they were a focal point. Former Ohio State quarterback and new Texas commit Quinn Ewers reclassified to the Class of 2021 to join the Buckeyes this year and signed a seven-figure autograph deal. Hunter’s flip to Jackson State appears to have reignited the conversation.

Oklahoma has the No. 10 recruiting class, according to the On3 Consensus Team Rankings. The Sooners have 13 four-star recruits committed, including running back Gavin Sawchuck, who’s ranked as the No. 1 recruit in Colorado according to the On3 Consensus.

Even though the early signing period has come and gone, this likely isn’t the last we’ve heard about NIL as recruiting heats up.