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Brent Venables to be the next Oklahoma head coach | College Football Enquirer

Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss Oklahoma hiring Clemson DC Brent Venables as its next head coach.

Video Transcript

[BAT HITS BALL, CROWD CHEERS]

DAN WETZEL: It does look like Brent Venables to Oklahoma. He emerged very early. He's going to leave the safety of-- I thought he was making 2 and 1/2 million coaching as a defensive corner at Clemson. Could have been the Auburn coach last year. This is the one he's going to take, it looks like.

Quick thoughts on that. We've talked about Venables before. If you're just listening, go back a couple of podcasts. But any additional thoughts briefly because we've got a whole bunch of stuff to get through?

PETE THAMEL: Coach had eight national title games as a defensive coordinator, good coach. Levy is supposed to go with him, if he takes the job, as the OC. That'll keep Oklahoma's high-end offensive identity going there. And yeah, Brent knows how to build it. He learned from Dabo how to build it. He knows what it's supposed to look like on defense.

It'll be interesting to see if he brings this sign stealers with him because that's always been part of the Clemson lore a little bit. But Brett Venables is an excellent football coach who-- there'll be an adjustment to him to be a head coach because he is such a ball guy. And it just takes a little bit different cadence to be a head coach. I think he and Joe Castiglione will be an excellent pairing.

PAT FORDE: Yeah and this continues Castiglione's track record and Oklahoma's unbelievable track record of hiring assistants and not hiring sitting head coaches. Lincoln Riley obviously was an assistant. Bob Stoops was an assistant. Barry Switzer was an assistant. John Blake was an assistant. The one guy they hired who wasn't was Howard Schnellenberger, and that was a one-year disaster. He was 5-5-1, and they ran him out.

So you see some programs-- a lot of programs-- most programs like, we've got to have a proven head coach. Well, it's worked together way awfully well at Oklahoma. Now, not everybody has the advantages and the intrinsic support that Oklahoma does.

Anyway, no, I mean, look, Venables, to Pete's point-- and I think is a very good one-- he is a ball coach. He's an X and O, dark room, scheme it up, get on the sidelines, and coach them up in practice, all that stuff. But yes, can he lead the whole program? That's going to be the challenge for him. And be the face of the program-- I think he can. But it will be an adjustment.