Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables discusses Texas ahead of Saturday's rivalry game

Second-year Sooners head coach Brent Venables has his team at 5-0 just a year after going 6-7. Of course, he arrived in Norman under harsh circumstances following the departure of Lincoln Riley. On Saturday we’ll get a much better idea of how Venables’ rebuild is going, but it might be fair to say he’s ahead of schedule.

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Thus far OU has ridden the arm of senior quarterback Dillon Gabriel who is off to a very strong start. As Venables mentioned in his Tuesday press conference, Gabriel “has been outstanding this year, is one of six FBS players since the start of the ’96 season to complete at least 75% of his passes through the first five games of a season while also throwing for 15 touchdowns with two or fewer interceptions.”

Miraculously, OU already has 17 players with a touchdown to their credit, including two defensive scores. They’re also +8 in turnover margin. Those two stats are pretty revealing of the Sooners’ quick start.

While OU certainly seems improved year-over-year, the eyeball test hasn’t been quite as kind. The Sooners struggled with SMU for much of the Week 2 game and were fortunate a poor Iowa State offense couldn’t capitalize on Sooners’ mistakes.

To his credit Venables is under no illusion his team is close to a finished product. Of this Saturday’s game at the Cotton Bowl he said, “I want to see where we’re at. If you want to continue to improve and create change, we’re certainly not where we want to be in any way shape or form. That doesn’t mean that you’re not thankful for your players and coaches and the hard work that guys have put in. The success that we’ve had you got to celebrate, you can’t forget to celebrate successes along the way but always keep the right perspective about what lies ahead and what your objectives and goals and hopes are.”

What lies ahead for the Sooners is 5-0 Texas, a team that’s vastly improved in Year 3 under Steve Sarkisian.

As you’d expect, Venables was complimentary of UT. After joking with media about going over Texas’ impressive statistical profile on the way to the press conference, he went into further depth.

“A really talented, hot Texas team,” Venables said. “On paper, and on film, they play their best when they’re playing really good people. Texas has already risen to the occasion and done so. Coming off a really good, strong game last week against Kansas where they had almost 700 yards of offense and really were unstoppable.”

Not only is Texas playing good offense, but the defense might be even further along at this point. Said the former Clemson defensive coordinator, “They’ve been outstanding in all of the areas, you peel it back whether that’s rush defense or pass defense or scoring defense or red zone defense.”

But it wouldn’t be Texas-OU without some high profile offensive weapons, “(Jonathon) Brooks is one of their number of backs that’s running really, really well. (Xavier) Worthy and (Adonai) Mitchell, (Ja’Tavion) Sanders, amongst others, are just some really incredibly talented players. (Quinn) Ewers he’s a true freshman last year — played pretty danged good and he’s playing at a really high level obviously against Alabama in Tuscaloosa.”

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As Venables would state later in his press conference, the Texas run game is much more than just Brooks, “He’s got a really good offensive line, they’ve got all five returning offensive linemen from a year ago, so very experienced, physical, well coached, know what they’re doing. And then he’s got strength, power, patience, he’s got great pace, he plays really well behind his pads, runs with confidence.”

This is the most complete Texas team the Sooners will face since the golden years of Mack Brown. Venables knows he has a big task ahead of him, but he’s also pleased with the progress his team has made in a short period of time and looks forward to the challenge the ‘Horns present.