What Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said about facing Alabama

No. 7 Alabama will hit the road for the final time in the regular season this week to take on a fellow college football blue-blood in the Oklahoma Sooners. The game has a 6:30 p.m. CT kickoff time in Norman, and will air on ABC.

On Wednesday, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables joined the SEC coaches teleconference to discuss the matchup with the Crimson Tide, his first meeting with Alabama since he was the defensive coordinator at Clemson.

Overall thoughts on the game…

“It’ll be our last regular season game here in Norman. We’ve got 18 seniors who will play their last game here. I’m incredibly thankful for the leadership, the sacrifice, the commitment, all the hard work that’s gone in to helping our program during their career. Getting ready for a fantastic Alabama football team. They’re playing their best football right now. Not a more balanced football team in the country than what Alabama has done in all three phases. Top ten in the country in offense, defense and scoring offense and scoring defense. Just premier players everywhere, starting with the quarterback, Jalen Milroe, and the type of season he’s having, the threat he is, the explosiveness, the toughness, the leadership he provides that football team. On defense, all three levels they’re playing at an elite level. Their linebackers, Jihaad Campbell and Deontae Lawson, they’re playing as well as any defensive player in the country right now. It’s gonna be a great challenge, but also a fantastic opportunity, one our guys are looking forward to.

On what he thinks about Alabama historically…

“Just a lot of battles. Certainly, we played them here in 2002 and 2003. It was an act of god that we pulled out the 2002 game, we won 37-27, and every trick play in the book worked that Coach Francione and the team – their spirit the fight that their program has is not surprising. Coach Bates, he took the L that day, he was on the Alabama team that year, a great player for them. All the battles we had with them when I was at Clemson as well. They’ve been the gold standard recently, but both programs represent the excellence of college football. You talk about Alabama’s third in all-time winning percentage, Oklahoma is fifth in college football history. Since the end of World War II, Oklahoma leads in the country with 705 wins and Alabama is second with 677. Nobody has been able to do it as long as both of these programs have. Just the excellence the brand has represented, and Coach Saban has been a part of that recent history and tradition, and Coach DeBoer and his staff have come right in and have established the dominance that Alabama has represented for a long time.”

On what he remembers about the 2002 Alabama-Oklahoma game…

“It was a new staff, and certainly we hadn’t played Alabama, so not as familiar. There was a lot that was unknown, it was early in the year, and Coach Francione and his staff had just gotten there. What I remember, I remember they ran the smoke draw. That was a big play that Coach Francione had run a lot of, and that was a big part of our defensive gameplan was stopping that. They started the game with an onside kick, and they had the sky kick, and a fake field goal, I think a fake punt, they blocked a kick. All kinds of things happened in the kicking game, and everything went against the Sooners in that regard. Somehow, someway we found a way. Eric Bassey, I think scooped up a ball for a touchdown there late to kind of seal the win, but Ronaldo Works had an amazing run of sheer physicality and will to b a spark for us late in the game over on our sideline. Those are the things I remember most about it.”