What Oklahoma’s Brent Venables said about facing South Carolina once again

Brent Venables may have left the Palmetto State, but he hasn’t gotten away from South Carolina.

For the first time since leaving Clemson to become Oklahoma’s head coach in December 2021, Venables will face off against the Gamecocks in October when South Carolina travels to Norman for the first time.

Venables took over Oklahoma just a few months after Texas and Oklahoma accepted invitations into the SEC, but the Sooners have been playing in the Big 12 for the past two seasons as they prepared to transition into the toughest conference in college football.

In those two seasons away, though, Venables has kept up with both Clemson and South Carolina.

When asked for his thoughts on playing the Gamecocks this season, the Sooners’ head man went on for over three-and-a-half minutes — praising Shane Beamer, mentioning how USC struggled in one-score games last year, noting the defense got much better in the back half of the season and even talking about South Carolina playing freshmen on the O-Line.

“I think that they’re undervalued as a team,” Venables said of South Carolina while speaking Tuesday at SEC Media Days. “I’ve really looked at them hard. Looked at their roster, looked at how they played throughout the year. They played their best football at the end of the year.”

When the Gamecocks visit Oklahoma, Venables will be riding an eight-game winning streak over South Carolina. During his first two seasons at Clemson (2012-13), the Steve Spurrier-led Gamecocks beat Clemson before the Tigers won the next eight. Then, right after Venables left for Oklahoma, South Carolina finally ended the streak.

Venables said he’s not looking forward to facing USC because it means facing Shane Beamer.

“I’m a people person,” Venables said, “and I don’t like facing people I know. Because I know the byproduct of it. But it is what it is. If you ask me how I really feel, Shane has done a great job.”

SOUTH CAROLINA FOOTBALL 2024 SCHEDULE

• Aug. 31: vs. Old Dominion, 4:15 p.m. (SEC Network)

• Sept. 7: at Kentucky, 3:30 p.m. (ABC)

• Sept. 14: vs. LSU, noon (ABC)

• Sept. 21: vs. Akron

• Oct. 5: vs. Ole Miss

• Oct. 12: at Alabama, noon (ABC or ESPN)

• Oct. 19: at Oklahoma

• Nov. 2: vs. Texas A&M

• Nov. 9: at Vanderbilt

• Nov. 16: vs. Missouri

• Nov. 23: vs. Wofford, 4 p.m. (ESPN+/SECN+)

• Nov. 30: at Clemson