Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables extends praise to South Carolina football program, state as whole

Brent Venables was a familiar face in the South Carolina-Clemson football rivalry for exactly one decade. Venables served as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator and linebackers coach from 2012-21 (and also had with an associate head coach tag over his last four years with the program).

In his time with Clemson, Venables helped lead the team to seven wins over the Gamecocks in nine attempts. Now the head coach at Oklahoma, he will have the opportunity to take on South Carolina once again this season.

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The Gamecocks and Sooners will meet on Oct. 19 during the eighth week of the regular season. South Carolina’s trip to Norman will mark the first time the team has faced Oklahoma in program history.

Venables had the opportunity to speak about South Carolina at the SEC Media Days in Dallas, Texas last Tuesday. There, he spoke highly of the Gamecock football program and the passion the state has for college football.

Venables said, in some ways, he is “not looking forward to seeing Shane (Beamer)” on the opposite sideline this upcoming season. And it’s not because a personal rivalry remains between the two coaches. Rather, it’s because Venables is not a fan of taking on college football figures he respects and admires.

“I’m a people person, and I don’t like facing people I know and I like. I really don’t because I know the byproduct of it,” Venables said. “But it just is what it is.”

He described South Carolina as an “undervalued team” and one that experienced some adversity this past season. After winning seven and eight games, respectively, in Beamer’s first two seasons as head coach, the Gamecocks won just five last year and did not play in a bowl game for the first time since 2020.

But Venables noted that, even when South Carolina lost, it was not far away from victory. He also praised the team for its performance on defense, which improved as the 2023 campaign went along.

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“I’ve really looked at them hard. I looked at their roster, how they played throughout the year. They played their best football at the end of the year. Even when they came up short — I spoke earlier about being a one-possession league, and they were on the wrong side of that a couple times,” Venables said. “And their defense — I know the final numbers don’t look great, but it was something right around 300 yards of defense maybe their last six games they gave up… and 20 points or less. They had an outstanding back half of their season.”

The Gamecocks’ 2024 roster will feature a mix of experienced veterans, young prospects, and players new to the program who were acquired through the transfer portal and recruiting. Venables said the team has managed its roster well, especially along the offensive line.

“They’ve done a really good job and have a lot of guys back. They’ve recruited well in the transfer portal. And they had a lot of young guys up front on the offensive line, and it’ll only be better,” Venables said. “You’re going to get baptized anywhere in college football, let alone the SEC, if you’re a freshman starting in an offensive line. (It’s) one of the most difficult positions to play as a freshman.”

Venables said, during his first coaching stint at Oklahoma, he had a friend on Lou Holtz’s South Carolina coaching staff. That was when he was first introduced to the rivalry, he said.

But now, Venables has respect for what the state has to offer, from both a general and college football standpoint.

“I had no idea what South Carolina and Clemson was all about. Now that I spent a decade in that state, there’s only, give or take, five mean people in the whole state. They’re going to have, in two ends of the state — in the Upstate, and down in the Lowstate — two programs, on any given Saturday, their stadiums have 80,000-plus people. And they are loud, both places,” Venable said. “That’s really cool, as a lover of college football and the pageantry, the hate of the rivalries.”

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