From the first day of Oklahoma’s coaching search there’s been smoke around Brent Venables. He immediately because the favorite choice among current and former players, as well as among the fanbase. Late Saturday night that smoke really began to billow and by Sunday morning it became a full on flame with multiple outlets reporting that Venables is in fact the guy Oklahoma wants.
Now the question turns from Venables being the popular choice to whether he’s the right choice? For me, that’s an emphatic yes and I explained my reasoning for that in an article I wrote on Saturday about Oklahoma’s coaching candidates.
Everything about that hire would make sense. Venables has name, and brand recognition, as Clemson’s defensive coordinator. In all he’s coached in eight national championship games, winning three of them, and in 25 years of coaching he’s never been with a team that had a losing record. He’s also coached in 15 conference championship games and has an impressive 13-2 record, including 6-0 at Clemson, in such contests. Of course what endears him to OU fans was his time in Norman where he helped Bob Stoops resurrect the program from obscurity and won the 2000 national championship and then going on to win a total of eight Big 12 titles with the Sooners.
An official announcement by the university could come as early as today but it’s more likely to be on Monday.
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