What They Said: Brent Venables recaps Oklahoma's win over Michigan

Opening Statement

Boy, a great win for our guys, our coaches, our players. The Sooner Nation, they were awesome. They really showed up tonight. They affected the game; that was a lot of fun to be a part of—the passion, the energy in the stadium, the locker room. A hard-fought victory. Didn’t play our best game and still won by a couple scores, so we’ll take that. I really felt like we, there’s a lot of the game we played really, really well and at time had an opportunity to really pull away but had some self-inflicted issues that kept things a little closer, but like a championship-style program that Michigan represents, they kept throwing haymakers as well. But we’re super proud of our players and coaches figuring out, finding a way to win—won a really tough, good game where a lot of the statistically things we won. I know we were minus in the turnover margin, fantastic in the red zone; that’s a huge difference in the game, playing some elite-level defense—just a mindset. The mindset sets the tempo for everything, and really proud of the toughness that our guys played with on defense time and time again, turning them back and either held them to no points or a field goal, got off the field there at the end.  Offensively, it really felt like they controlled the tempo of the day, playing a really good defense, really well-coached. They got a great roster—408-288 (in total yards), gave up the 75-yard run, put ‘em in a bad call; we got to play it better, adjust it better, do some things fundamentally better, but I put them in a bad call right out the gate and took the air out of the stadium. It didn’t deter them. Again, I thought our guys were really disruptive and tight. A lot of coverage; they made a competitive play down the middle of the field. You’d love to make that play and pull the ball out, but held them to 38% conversion or completion percentage; it’s hard to do in this day and age. Again, third down, I think they were—third and fourth down—three out of 15. We were over 50%. That’s a winning formula. Grayson Miller—how about Grayson Miller. UCO. I know nobody can play from UCO, and nobody can play from Purdue, and we can go down that list. But these guys figured out—Owen Heinecke led the team in tackles; a walk-on. Bunch of misfits. The O-line was really good. Started off giving the game ball to Bill Bedenbaugh and the offensive line group, really proud of those guys, everything that they’ve battled through, the pain—as I told the team—is one of the world’s greatest adhesives, and what you go through. Somebody who’s gone through hell, like a lot of us have, you don’t walk the same. But our destination isn’t to be 2-0 and beat Michigan. We feel like we have a heck of a team and have an opportunity with a lot of big-time challenges in front of us to have a really good season, so I’m really excited about what this team can become. I’m proud of John. Again, he made some amazing plays—in the first half when he broke some tackles and threw some lasers. I don’t know if it was fun to watch, but it sure was for me. Barnes ran with conviction. Blaylock battled through just kind of being banged up and did great. John showed his acumen as a runner as well, and that’s what good players can do. Quarterbacks that are playing at the highest level, they can throw it and they can run it—designed and have the ability to improvise, make plays, extend plays and throw the ball down the field. I thought our guys did a great job competing in a lot of those situations; we work scramble drill every week. Deion Burks, a guy that was overlooked in the state of Michigan; there’s a lot of guys in the state of Michigan, but it was personal for him. He had over 100 yards. That was awesome. Jaren Kanak, and I know he wishes he could get what would’ve been a touchdown back, but man, was he tough or what? Just makes plays, catches it in traffic and falls forward a lot. Again, John had just south of 350 yards of total offense. So, really excited for the guys. Thankful, again, for the coaches and all their hard work. I look forward to going to Philadelphia here this week.

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On whether it was the most physical game in his time at Oklahoma

I don’t know. It was a very physical game. I think they punched back. We punched, went kind of back and forth. We’ve played plenty of physical games, but it was a physical game, no question about it. It’s a program that prides itself on being physical, and we want to do the hunting. I thought our guys did a great job of that.

On the importance of getting the early lead

I thought we got in a good rhythm. I think they’re comfortable. It’s still two scores, but we had an opportunity to get three scores ahead, but we just couldn’t put it together. But that was big going in, and then we did our best there to keep them in it and give them an opportunity there to the end. I just like the resolve. Nobody panicked. Kept showing back up. Made the plays when we needed to. Again, a 9 ½-plus minute drive there in the last 10 ½ minutes of the game, whatever that was, that says a lot. Again, you’re not going against Sisters of the Poor; you’re going against Michigan and Coach Martindale and those kind of things.

On what went into nullifying Michigan’s offense

“Again, just playing complementary defense, so the guys up front, guys in coverage—not allowing them to have real balance in the run game. Obviously, that puts them in a little bit more of a predictable situation. I thought we had some really good timely plays within several of the drives, even on early downs, that really put them in a tough position. And then we got them into some predictable situations there, as well. So just good team defense, as much as anything. Guys playing well together, for the most part.”

On being lifted on the shoulders of his players postgame

I’m embarrassed. This is a players’ game, first of all. A lot of other people were responsible for getting to that moment. We’re 2-0. I don’t want to take away — celebrate, man. What we do is too hard, man. You only get 12 opportunities guaranteed at the beginning of the year, so not apologizing for celebrating with the guys. They need to celebrate. Everybody else outside — and not here, just everywhere — is going to nitpick and this and that, and that’s fine, but I want our guys to have an appreciation for what it takes and everything that goes into winning. It’s not easy to do. So it was cool for those guys.

On John Mateer’s toughness

Obviously you saw what it can do. He falls forward a lot. He’s got great strength and great skill. He’s a tough guy. He’s fearless. He attacks everything without fear. He believes in the guys around him. He plays within the system. Thought our guys had a really good gameplan, the offensive staff. But the plan and the schemes are only as good as the players out (there) executing it, and I thought they did a good job executing it. I told the guys before the game, the will of this football team’s gonna make the difference. There’s plenty of things that maybe made the difference, but it starts with that. If you don’t have that, you’re in trouble. I thought they had great opportunities to show kind of the soul and the toughness of this program.”

On whether it was one of those nights where he needed to carry the ball 19 times to win

Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. We did what we needed to do to win.

On his thoughts on the final offensive drive

I’m just laughing because that’s close to a 10-minute drive. Those are hard to get against good people. They’re hard to get at practice against the scouts without some screw ups along the way. So, just really functional football. Not perfect. But it’s good, functional, clean football. Executing, making the plays when you needed to, throwing, catching, guys caught the ball and got up the field. Made some good, tough runs. Didn’t allow a lot of leakage. There’s plenty of times they had the whole defense down there trying to stop us.

On what he saw from his OL

Just working in a cohesive way. I said this at some point in time today to somebody, but last year’s team, we had 10 different starting lineups. The offensive line, there’s not a more important position on a football team that requires chemistry and cohesion, time together, the communication, everybody working together. Because of having guys out and unavailable, we had to baptize some guys before they were ready, but they did as well as they could, but we weren’t quite there yet. 
“So to see that, kind of where we are several months later. I know we’ve got a true freshman out there and some guy from one of them directional Carolina schools, surely he can’t be worth a flip. But he did alright. But really proud of all those guys, man. Everything that’s gone into it. Bill Bedenbaugh, man, he’s worked so hard. He’s lived and died in every tackle for loss, sack, all the things that go into developing a group of guys. He’s put his heart and soul into it, so happy for him.

On working with young cornerbacks

We talked about on defense — and you talk to the other guys, not to our players, but to our staff, that was gonna be one of the most critical parts of this year’s defense, kind of the question mark. And we made a decision not to go into the portal and stick with our young guys. Just get ’em ready. And they had shown enough for us that we thought that they would. Sometimes hope’s not a good strategy, but we were hoping, too. They’ve put in a lot of work. Jay’s done a great job, along with coach Hall. Those safeties and corners gotta work together. The front works with the back end, as well. 
“But the young guys, they’re fearless. They love the work. They’re a bunch of dogs. They’re edgy. They love to be pushed and challenged. So that was good. And we’re gonna see lots of different types of tests and lots of amazing receivers, so that was a good test. A different kind of test. They had to show up in coverage and a lot of the perimeter run game. Very physical. And you saw them early in the game setting edges outside in. We ran some pressures. We were blitzing a corner. Those guys were fearless. It was fun to watch.

On Kendal Daniels

He did good. That first boot, he was all excited. He was going to go get the quarterback. He’s gotta cover the flats. They picked up 20 yards because he’s not in the flat. He was all fired up, thought it was gonna be a run. But he’s been great. I’ve bragged on him a lot, just his maturity, his ability to adapt to the locker room, earn the respect of his teammates, play multiple positions. He brings a unique skillset, outside and inside both. But great teammate. Love his attitude and energy. Guys really, really respect him.

On what the win does for the program and recruiting

Again, it always kind of twists me up. With the recruits, I think there’s validation, and I think they’re looking for certain things. So whether it’s a quarterback that’s looking for a place to call home in his style of offense, it’s gonna have great balance, give them an opportunity to showcase their ability, or an offensive lineman. It can show their physical toughness, ability to pass protect against some of the best, and be developed by one of the best offensive line coaches at any level of football. Or, again, to play in a ferocious defense, that guys are gonna play with tremendous passion, and physicality, and belief. And look like they’re having fun, like it’s recess. And who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? Developed in every part of your life as well. So I’m excited for that, there’ll be a byproduct of having a good night like that early in the year, creates a little bit of momentum in that space. That’s real, recruiting, and when you’re making life changing kind of decisions, and people are involved, and I think people will see, ‘Hey man, I wanna be a part of that, I can see myself there.’

On what an early-season win like this can do for the season

Again, you get into a rhythm in the season, and you learn a lot when you’re challenged, and your back’s against the wall, you learn a lot. And again, I told the guys, man, you didn’t have to play perfect. We’ve been saying that you don’t have to play perfect to win. And sometimes people, you have this, you put pressure on yourself where you feel like I have to play perfect to win, and we’ve preached that a lot. This is a, when we put it all together, all three phases.  Remember, you don’t have to play quarterback alone. You don’t have to play special teams alone. You don’t have to play left tackle alone, and you got a great defense. There’s other players in the offensive huddle. They’re gonna chip a little bit, and help you out, and plus one run game helps out. Quarterback that can make plays with his legs can help everybody out. And so that, I think that, for us, in a locker room, as you build your team, and you wanna create confidence through doing the really hard stuff. Having some success lends credibility to the process, how we practice, how we meet, and again, not have doubt. Think the right way, and believe in yourself, believe in your opportunity, believe in your teammates, believe in how we practice, how we meet, all of those kinds of things. And again, you have a lot of different types of challenges along the way in front of us, we know that. But again, I think that’s obviously a step in the right direction.

On coaching against Sherrone Moore

“Yeah, again, you don’t ever love playing people that you have great respect for. I don’t anyway, I don’t get anything about that. And I like to win and then do it against somebody I don’t really like. That’s fun, it is.—“

On whether he has any examples of winning against people he doesn’t like

No, someday, but anyway, that’s just what it is, they’ll be fine. And they’ve won plenty. And again, as we know, that was just look at the last part of last year. And the roster that they had, and again, they’re a very talented team. They had a lot of momentum coming into the year, too. So again, just one game, but that’s a team that’s gonna respond. They showed that the last several years. But I think it was every bit as good as I thought it would be from a roster, what they look like, how they played. I loved, I looked across their sideline at the start of the fourth quarter, and they were excited to play. They thought they had some momentum, maybe they did, maybe they didn’t. And our guys shut that door, but I like that. I was like, that’s what we said they were gonna do. And that’s what they punch back. And you’re gonna have to knock somebody out, and they’re gonna give it to you. And so you gotta go take it and earn it. So that was just more validation, I already affirmed. Affirmation.

On having high standards for the program

Yeah, I mean, I’m not that way. I don’t, I think every year is a little different. This is a program that has high standards and high expectations. And I’ve said this to you all before, several times. And I want everybody to share in the success. And I know how much people in this state, people across the country, that love the Sooners, how much passion they have for Oklahoma. And everybody wants to win and be successful. So for a moment, man, we get to celebrate and be proud of their team and of their school, but that is an expectation here. And so, again, we met the criteria today, and job well done by our guys.