Report: Brent Venables, Oklahoma hires Texas A&M staffer

Brent Venables and the Oklahoma Sooners have dipped into Jimbo Fisher’s staff at Texas A&M, hiring Jerry Schmidt as the Sooners’ next director of sports performance, according to a report from Aggies Today.

Schmidt had previously held a similar title, director of athletic performance, at Texas A&M. But much like Venables, who has a history at Oklahoma prior to receiving the head coaching job, Schmidt comes to Norman for his second stint with the Sooners. He previously served as the Oklahoma Sooners’ director of sports performance from 1999-2017.

Prior to Texas A&M and Oklahoma, Schmidt served as a coordinator or assistant strength and conditioning coach at Florida, Notre Dame and Oklahoma State. His role as director of sports performance is effectively the top role in the strength and conditioning department, as he will work to ensure that Oklahoma’s first-year team under Brent Venables is in game-shape.

Joe Castiglione explains Oklahoma’s process of hiring Brent Venables

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione needed just a week to replace former head coach Lincoln Riley, as the Sooners went out and hired Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables.

Much like Riley, Venables comes from the Bob Stoops coaching tree. While Riley served as Stoops’ offensive coordinator before his promotion to head coach, Venables served as Stoops’ defensive coordinator. Hired in 1999, Venables was Oklahoma’s co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, then he was promoted in 2004 to assistant head coach, too. Venables coached the defense under Stoops in 2000, when the Sooners were consensus national champions, before eventually leaving for Clemson.

It may take some time for the Sooners to see the results of their newest hire on the field and on the recruiting trail, but at the onset, Oklahoma fans seem thrilled with the decision. The same goes for athletic director Joe Castiglione, who made Oklahoma’s hiring process seem like a breeze.

“Coach (Venables) was my first call,” Castiglione said of Oklahoma’s coaching search. “But I think — and he would agree — I owe it to the University of Oklahoma, and to him and his candidacy, to have a process. And a process is all-encompassing, and there are many facets of it, and in the end, regardless of what decision we make, it fortifies, validates and clarifies everything about what is needed. Leadership, alignment, support, and how we’re going to go about doing this together.”

Venables has been at Clemson since 2012, serving six seasons as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, before his promotion in 2018. Ever since then, he’s served as Clemson’s assistant head coach, in addition to his duties as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Venables was a Broyles Award finalist with Oklahoma, but he later won the distinction in 2016, while coaching Clemson.

“Sometimes, there might be a reason you do it instantaneously. It might be a reason like you’ve been with them, you’ve watched them, and in that situation it might make sense. But that doesn’t mean it makes sense in every situation,” Castiglione said. “I think in this case, the process itself was important, and we moved it quickly. The other part was we weren’t just dealing with the process of hiring a coach. Obviously, we didn’t expect to be in a coaching search a week ago, and we had to deal with all the other connectivity to what that change meant: players, coaching staff, the university, fans — everybody had a reaction to it. We were managing that, and at the same time we were trying to put the focus on the coaching search.”

Clemson made Venables the highest-paid assistant coach in college football in July of 2021, as the board of trustees approved an extension through 2026 that paid him $2.5 million per year. But that didn’t stop Castiglione from bringing the former Oklahoma coordinator back to campus, this time as the head of the program.

“The process, in this case, you really have to follow it. It really makes the decision you make so much stronger,” he said.