Brent Venables reveals the keys to Oklahoma winning in close games

Oklahoma has a winning record in their games that have been decided by a possession or less this season. To Brent Venables, that’s because, as a coaching staff and a team, the Sooners are always looking to improve.

Venables explained his team’s success in clutch moments during his weekly press conference on Monday. He knows that luck has little to do with it because of the work that he and his staff continue to do and what they try to instill in their players to be ready for those moments.

“Well, you’ve got to be good at what you’re doing. I don’t think it’s just luck – I really believe that,” said Venables. “It’s confidence in those stressful moments. I certainly believe that coaches have responsibilities, tremendous responsibilities. This is a player’s game. It’s still on putting them in a position to be successful. And you’ve got to make plays. Sometimes, you’re on the wrong side of it and they were a little bit better at it than you were. That’s the game of football.”

“I think being more physical, more sure of yourselves, more precise, more detailed? This is a game of performance and execution. The awareness, the confidence, the precision – all of those things are important,” said Venables.

Venables also highlighted the moments that aren’t necessarily toward the end of the game that build up to a win or a loss in a close contest. Whether it’s a positive play or a negative one, he and the Sooners always look back and study what did or didn’t go well to see how it affected the final outcome.

“There’s lots of different moments that you can look at that are going to put you on the right side of winning and losing. Turnovers and penalties are very real. But, also, putting guys in the right position is a part of it as well. I think all of it matters,” said Venables. “Sometimes, it comes down to that last drive of the game. But, really, I always look back – just like we did even last week. Even through victory, how did we get to this point?”

In five one-possession margins this fall, Oklahoma is 3-2. Some of that might be because of what Venables is referring to, some of that might be because of the ‘luck’ of it all and how it all evens out in the end.

Either way, though, Venables and his staff are going to keep doing as they’ve done in order to prepare their team for when the pivotal moments of the game arrive.

“Those are the things I look for – not the obvious things. The obvious things? We’ve got to work on those. That goes without saying. But that? Making sure that we do a great job, even through victory, of trying to always coach and get our guys better,” said Venables.