By giving Brent Venables an extension before Year 3, Oklahoma is investing in stability amid SEC transition

There’s a current Big 12 coach whose favorite catchphrase is, “Do you believe?” 

But forget about Deion Sanders here, the answer for Oklahoma’s administration regarding their former Big 12 head coach turned SEC statesman Brent Venables is an emphatic, “Yes.”

Venables is just 16-10 as the Sooners’ head coach, yet he was rewarded with a contract extension (two years) and raise (roughly $925,000 annually) as the program makes their transition to the SEC this fall.

“We’re proactive about contracts as best as we can, and we’re watching the market, we’re certainly recognizing the performance of our coaches, the role that they play in leadership, the importance of not just talking about stability and the forward thinking and what our program wants to do in tracking toward future success but demonstrating it,” Oklahoma athletics director Joe Castiglione Jr. said Friday. 

“I think our move and the contract for Coach Venables is a perfect example of that—what he’s been doing since he’s been on campus for two years and as we’re moving into a new league and setting the foundation in the right place for us to be successful moving forward and pursue championships, just like all the best teams are trying to do and the ones that we’re competing against.”

Castiglione’s comments were gasoline for a social media firestorm as soon as Venables’ new deal leaked. Naturally, many college football fans questioned the decision to hand Venables a new contract after just two seasons in Norman. 

On the one hand, Venables has inked a pair of Top 10 recruiting classes, successfully flipped OU’s roster with marquee transfer portal additions and beat No. 3 Texas in the Red River Rivalry last season.  

Of course, the former longtime Clemson defensive coordinator also has losses to the likes of West Virginia, Baylor and Texas Tech on his resume, is just 10-8 in Big 12 games and is about to face an even tougher gauntlet in the SEC. 

In most cases, coaches facing inflection-point seasons don’t net new deals before a pivotal year, but Oklahoma finds its program in a bit of a unique situation.  If the Sooners were still in the Big 12, they’d be seen as one of the two conference favorites alongside fellow SEC-newcomer Texas. 

But they’re not.

They’re in the big boy league now, and while they have the potential roster to be a playoff spoiler in 2024, the expectation is they’ll be a mediocre team (a preseason over/under win-total of 7.5) in their transition season in a new conference. 

Castiglione & Co., do not believe they have a mediocre coach though. 

Despite the mixed results from the first two years, Oklahoma’s administration feels strongly that it has the right guy to lead the program back to championship contention. They do “believe” in Venables’ vision. They do “believe” that he can stabilize the program amid its transition to a tougher league.

Why Oklahoma is all-in on Brent Venables

The Sooners went from 6-7 to 10-3 in Year 2, and although the four-win jump looks promising, further progress isn’t guaranteed to be linear. Despite OU’s defensive improvements in Year 2 and the upside of 5-star quarterback Jackson Arnold, the 2024 season has the potential to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride (six preseason Top 15 opponents). By handing out an extension to Brent Venables now, if things go south in the program’s first season in the SEC, Oklahoma can curb any premature “hot seat” conjecture for recruits and potential in-house transfers.

We don’t know the exact updated buyout terms, but the slight bump in pay (still the 9th-highest in the SEC) and two-year extension doesn’t handcuff the Sooners, either.

This extension is a bet on Venables’ ability to fix a cracked foundation from the remnants of the Lincoln Riley regime while continuing to recruit at a top-tier level. 

Venables has dramatically upgraded OU’s infrastructure and organization, with the rising third-year head coach telling On3 at the SEC Spring Meetings, “When I was hired, we were in the 70s (nationally) in support staff salary pool, and we’ve made a real commitment there. As a program, we’ve been really forward-thinking, progressive and how to get better and more efficient.”

“Nobody lacks resources top to bottom in this conference, so whether that’s staffing, salaries, support staff, we have to continue to grow in all areas. … Building and maintaining competitive depth is critical.” 

Venables continued: “Strength and conditioning, sports performance, nutrition, life skills. Growth is (critical). We have to develop and nurture our culture. That’s really the root of the program. For us, that’s where it all starts.”

The Sooners will open the 2024 season with a first-year starting quarterback, a pair of new coordinators (former North Texas head coach Seth Littrell with Joe Jon Finely and Zac Alley at DC) and five new starting offensive linemen. As noted, the schedule is also super gnarly. 

There’s plenty of uncertainty with how Year 1 in the SEC will go for OU, but with the reworked deal, there’s no doubt where the program stands in regards to its head coach. 

“I recognize the challenge is real,” Brent Venables said. 

“Winning, being successful, having longevity, consistency, stability, continuity, those are all hard things to hold on to. This is a league that’s a very unforgiving league. A lot of games are decided in the fourth quarter — and that’s between the teams at the very top in the win-loss column and the teams that aren’t. It’s a dogfight week-in and week out between them and everybody in the league. We have to be efficient. We have to be willing to adapt.”