What They Said: Oklahoma HC Brent Venables previews Michigan game

Opening Statement

All right, good afternoon. We got a great opportunity this week with Michigan coming into town. It’s going to be a really cool match-up of, again, two incredible programs that represent all the excellence in college football for a long, long time. So it’s going to be really exciting from an environment standpoint. GameDay will be here. That’s cool. We attracted some of the best talent in the country will also be on campus. From a recruiting standpoint and for our football team, most importantly, get an opportunity for us to match up with what’s been in the last several years one of the best teams in college football. Michigan returns 51 lettermen, a very experienced football team, a team two years removed from winning the national championship, a team that’s 31 and 5 in their last 36 conference games in the Big Ten Conference, and just had a tremendous amount of success for a long time. And certainly, this is a roster that they have that it’s elite. They’re really good in the trenches on both sides of the ball. They have elite playmakers. Their quarterback looks to be mature beyond his years with his decision-making. And certainly, his skill set’s got a very live arm, very athletic, and then a defense that for the last several years has been one of the gold standards in college football when it comes to playing great defense. So it’s going to be a great physical match-up. And again, for us, a great litmus test to where we’re at. I know our guys are looking forward to the challenge of the game. And so with that, I’ll open it up for questions.

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On Sherrone Moore’s leadership as a player and if he felt like he was going to be a head coach

I mean, that’s hard to say. Obviously, he was a great player, a great leader, ultra consistent. He was a guy that loved to compete, super physical. One of the linemen that just, man, he did the methodical very, very well, just day in and day out, ultra consistent. And really smart, and guys gravitated to his leadership style.

On having a healthy Gentry Williams

Yeah, excited for him. He’s been through a lot. Great example of a guy just not giving up on his opportunity. It’s been easy for him to try to start over or maybe even just kind of give in and think it wasn’t in the cards. And so really thankful for his toughness and his resolve to figure it out. And he’s a wonderful leader. I know you all had an opportunity to visit with him yesterday. And he’s got a great positive energy about him and tremendous wisdom as well. He’s a really connected guy. One of our best leaders on our team. And excited to see him have success and know he’s going to play his best year of football.

On how he prepares for a true freshman QB without much tape

Yeah, I really look at the team. The DNA of the offense. And so we want to get after every quarterback that we play. But everything, there’s a mythology to all of it. And so you’ve got to start in the run game. Starts up front. You’ve got to win the battle in the trenches. Everybody’s got to win. There are match-ups for anything to work. He’s a guy that, and he’s, as I said to open up, man, he’s a little different. And again, he reminds me a lot of a Trevor Lawrence. Just quick, decisive, accurate, poised, tough, consistent. And there’s a reason he was the number one player in America. And he’s got a maturity and a work ethic and leadership ability to go along with that. So just really, we look at what’s it going to take to win? How do you win? What’s the formula to win? And there might be byproducts of that. This guy doesn’t perform well, and so forth. But it’s really about us. It’s about the fundamentals. It’s about the efforts. It’s about the physicality. It’s about putting ourselves in position to be successful based on what is on tape. And don’t get into a lot of the conjecture.

On Owen Heinecke going from walk-on to contributor

Yeah, no, he’s doing incredibly well. Really proud of Owen. And the same thing is he’s got a stick-to-it-ness about him. He’s got a bad case of the wants. And he’s created opportunity for himself through a lot of hard work. He kept trying to throw himself into practice the last couple of years prior to this year. He’d sneak in there in the rotation, and I’d go in there and rip him out. I was literally telling the team this story yesterday, trying to just show them they see Owen like he is right now, but that’s not how this movie started. And for a lot of young guys that are sitting out there, how do you create opportunity for yourself? This game don’t wait on nobody. And so if you want your opportunity, man, you got to go get it. And this is a shining example. And when you don’t get it right away, you don’t give in. You keep coming after it. You keep throwing haymakers, and eventually you’ll break through, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. And so he’s a great example of that. He would really piss me off, because there’s a very calculated rotation. And then he’d get in there, and he’ll be the first one to tell you. He’d go in there, and he would not be where he’s supposed to be. And then that would make me even more mad. But I kind of liked him doing that. And he kept doing it. I didn’t look at it as disrespectful. I just saw it as a guy that, man, I know I can do something. So really, he believes in himself. And he’s made a believer out of everybody. He really has. He’s a trustworthy, not just a good guy, not just a guy that tries hard. He’s a guy that’s talented. He’s tough. He’s physical. He’s athletic. He’s really smart. He played 40-plus snaps in the game. And my other sell job was to so many young players that are very talented, that haven’t created a trust and value, and haven’t spent any time trying to get on a special teams unit. And I think half of his snaps were on special teams out of his 40 snaps. And so talking about, I am impacting the game, what a big deal that is, as opposed to you had two snaps at receiver. You didn’t do anything. You run 4-4-8. You’re 6-3. You can jump out of the gym. You’re physical. You’re tough. But not one time have you gone to the special teams coach. Or when you’ve had your opportunity in special teams, you don’t have a sense of urgency about your opportunity. So we’ve got a lot of good examples. Owen is a great example of that. The players really, the team really respects him. I just love his consistencies, his gratitude. And he’s a really good player.

On the importance of the SEC staying as the best conference in college football

I think it’s, I mean, it fits somewhere in the equation. And you’ve got pride. This is Oklahoma, Michigan. Oh, we happen to be in the SEC. They happen to be in the Big 10. I respectfully, that’s how I see it. And that’s big enough in itself. Again, the byproduct, as you said, was, again, there’s a recruiting potential opportunity there. And then a long history and tradition. And then right now, they’ve won a couple of national championships recently. And so there’s that too. That’s for a lot of other people outside the locker room, just being honest to talk about it. And I think both conferences have got tremendous quality to them. And so that is on the line as well. But it’s more of a big deal to me that it’s our guys against their guys. It’s Oklahoma, Michigan. And the opportunity that we have in front of us. And finding a way to win, what that would mean for us as we build and create momentum for the season and improve our football team.

On whether he gets pumped up for these kind of big games

I mean, yeah, absolutely, I do. But this is about the players. But I’m passionate about, again, what I do. And I think the energy and the enthusiasm, our players are going to be ready to play their butts off. And so my job is to make sure that they have poise under pressure, that they’re prepared, that they can quiet the noise and the chaos of game day. Game day, that’s real. And the best teams and the best players, they have poise under pressure. And as we’ve said before, pressure is a privilege. And I want our guys to embrace that and everything that goes along with that. But again, winning doesn’t negotiate. And you don’t want to allow the emotions of game day to be a tranquilizer for you as a player and to hijack your emotions in all the wrong places. So you have to be able to channel your passion and your energy for all the right things and not lose your mind in the middle of it. And so that’s my job, is to create the right type of mindset with our players on how do you go win in these moments and do what winning requires. That kind of was where it starts for me. And that’s our preparation, our details, those types of things.

On what he sees from Michigan’s defensive front

Yeah, the depth is probably the first thing. They lost several players, but they still have so many really good players up front. I think they’ve got seven players on defense who started at least 10 career games. That’s a lot for what was supposed to have graduated a lot of guys. So they’re very well coached. They’re long, they’re athletic, they’re physical. They play with great effort, a lot of confidence. They’ve got good culture. Jumps off tape.

On having Kevin Wilson on staff

Yeah, he’s just, again, as I’ve said before, he’s got a great pulse for the moment. What you need, what you don’t need, what’s good, what isn’t good. And he’s got great instincts as somebody like the great players do. When to take your shot, when not to, what’s common, what isn’t from the opponent. And he’s got a great understanding of just the human psyche, the player psyche part of it as well. When it’s enough and when it isn’t, those types of things. So he’s able to share some of that wisdom. And you’ve got to kind of pull it out of him a little bit because he doesn’t want to step on toes. But I think he’s done a great job of organically developing some really good relationships and trust with everybody around him.

On the importance of providing fans a historic experience this weekend

Yeah, you get, I think you’re a part of being able to give so many people a lot of excitement and passion, enthusiasm, give them a reason to celebrate. It’s all of us. And so that’s part of the responsibility when you’re a player, you’re a coach in the locker room. You have the opportunity to do that. And so that’s something that we’ve always taken pride in, as opposed to that’s not the mindset of you’re worried about how everybody else outside the building feels. I mean, their opinions. That’s not the same to me. The opportunity to bring people together, to make people, because I do just watch the thunder. What happened with the thunder? And that’s great for the state. And a lot of people, I mean, you give people the hope. And during the course of the season, just week in and week out, man, there’s a build up to every game. And there’s only 11 left guaranteed on the schedule. And six left here in our stadium. So we don’t ever take it for granted. We talk about that a lot internally, the responsibility as young men that put the crimson and cream on, what goes along with that. And be excited about that, that relationship that you have with your fan base.

On Isaiah Sategna’s role on defense

Yeah, I think he’s just, as I said in the spring, he was our most consistent receiver. Just showed up every single day, was always available. Strained, I mean, the mileage and the strain that he put out there every single day was impressive. He’s responsive, easy to coach, a really good teammate, really explosive as a playmaker. You saw that in the return game, and certainly you’ll see more of it at receiver as well. But a great young man that is principled on the right things. He’s just a lot of fun to be around. Really good teammate, and a real weapon for us this year.

On what it meant having Deion Burks return to the team

Yeah, he got up and spoke in front of the team several weeks ago and talked about that, everything that went into it for him. And he’s got pure motives. Does he want to do better? Absolutely, but he’s concerned with his name. And I really respect that, having a good name, respecting the opportunity to be at a place like Oklahoma, and wanting to leave a deposit and make the place better. And oh, by the way, I’m going to get better too, and I need to grow in every part of my life. You know, spiritually, as a man, certainly as a player. So he could have went for more money somewhere else. He certainly could have gotten drafted, at worst case somewhere, probably in the third, fourth, fifth round, and be making money, be playing in the NFL. But he made a really mature decision, in my opinion, and one that is going to serve him well, both short term, but most importantly, he’ll look back when he’s 30, 35 years old, and really appreciate the decisions that he made when he’s 22, to come back and finish what you started, and get better along the way. And then, again, to leave something that he can be proud of as well.

On his thoughts on Justice Haynes and how to prepare for him

Yeah, he’s got a great offensive line, a really physical group of guys. He’s a very instinctual player, very powerful, explosive. He had great success in high school, and just a young player at Alabama. I know he played, he had a role, and probably looking for a little bit more of a role at Michigan, and certainly he found it. But a really good player. I know, I’ve heard some of his interviews, a mature, wise young guy that has got strength as a leader as well. So he’s tough to tackle, got great speed. Both of their backs are really, really good players. So I got our hands full when it comes to stopping the run.

On whether too much stock is placed into early-season big games and whether it can determine a trajectory of the season

Yes, it can certainly, certainly can help propel you without question. And I wouldn’t say how much stock is too much or not. Man, it’s great as opposed to watching somebody win by 50. From a fan experience, when I go home and I watch games, I like the big games too. So I have a great appreciation for that. I think if you look at history, there’s been several teams that fell short in these games also that still had a fantastic year that you learn a lot through those moments too. And I think you’ve, if anything this weekend, the last couple of weeks, what you’ve seen is a bunch of really good programs going toe to toe. And at the end of it, you’re like, well, this play or that play made the difference in the game. But you’re like, man, that’s a good team. And that’s a good team on both sides of it. And that’s kind of how I looked at it. But great, great, again, as you, to your point, great opportunity to create a continued momentum for your program and take another step forward. And at the end of the day, man, every one of those matter. It all adds up quick.

On whether he’s seen Burks’ strides in the weight room pay off on the field

Yeah, I mean, I think to play, to your ability to be able to get into a four-hour fist fight, I think everything matters. And so from recovery to stamina to the physicality, the details of what it takes to play at an elite level, all of those things matter. And the last six, seven, eight months, he’s really dedicated over that period of time to making sure that he does everything he can to prepare his body for this season and beyond. And so he’s taken a real mature approach, been ultra-consistent when it comes to the discipline to do the things necessary. And he looks like it. You know, he’s got a lot left in the tank. I’ll just say that.

On Jaden Ott’s success to the run game

Yeah, as I’ve said, he’s one of the more explosive players in college football. I know he’s banged up last year. He was banged up in camp. And but looks to be close to 100%. And when he’s at his best, we’ve all seen people that know his journey, what he’s capable of. So he’s a real weapon. And I think he’ll play a real factor in our season moving forward. So I’m excited about that, to have another weapon like that on our offense. And we’re going to need him.

On having a true freshman QB playing against a good defensive coordinator

Yeah, I remember the guys around him playing well, a defense that played really well, receivers that climbed the ladder and made competitive plays, running backs that broke tackles, and an offensive line that gave him an opportunity to throw the ball on time. And then his talent was evident. But in that game, we also played two quarterbacks. The game that you referenced, Kelly Bryant also played and played well in some of the short yards, plus one run game, RPO, pop pass stuff, that world. But that’s what I remember about Trevor. He was surrounded by a veteran football team, where, again, he didn’t have to play quarterback alone. And if we’re going to be successful, everybody plays a role. And so he’d be the first to tell you. As the season went on, he had some ups and some downs. But in the biggest moment, in the biggest game at the end of the year, he was able to make a lot of really good plays under duress and tight windows, and so did the players around him. But that’s what I would say. Really good quarterbacks are successful not by themselves. But that’s what he was able to do. But be able to lean on the defense, and things aren’t going well. And nothing was easy about that game. Was that overtime? Was that one overtime? I think it went overtime. 28-26. 28-26. And it went right to the marker there. But yeah, we had to stop a two-point conversion to win the game on defense, and also another defensive play. They catch a runner on a third down, and they’re running in to score. And our safety doesn’t give up on the play and pops the ball out. And he fumbled it in bounds, and then it rolled through the end zone. And we get the ball back. And so you’ve got to have some things go your way. Those are just going back to the moment that you remember. But hostile. Coach Stoops came and spoke to the team a couple of, maybe a week ago or so. And he brought up that 2000 team, and just the red October. And then all of the headwinds and the choppy waters that the rest of the season brought. All the games that we had to quarterback had the huge elbow that was swollen up. And linebacker, Torrance Marshall intercepts one to come from behind win. And several other games that were like that. Defense not going to fade route down to Marcellus Rivers in the end zone to beat a 3 and 8 in Oklahoma State team. Or Tim Duncan, the walk-on kicker, kicking the knuckleball field goal in Arrowhead Stadium to win the Big 12 championship 27-24 to go to the national championship. It looks easy. Looking back, 13 and 0, man, they must have been dominant, but we weren’t. And it takes everybody. You remember that team. And the defense just got better as the season went along. A great example of what that looks like. And the offense went there, and then hit a valley, and then found its, even in the national championship, 13 to 2, we didn’t do a whole lot. We were just super efficient. And the defense kept getting better. And the punter tried to screw it up. But anyway, I’m just sorry for you. But I mean, because I think your point is you’ve got first-year players. And all of the challenges that a season brings, certainly this conference and what’s in front of us, or the quarterback from Michigan coming in here, he’s got a good supporting cast, too. But it doesn’t have to end the same way. So we like who we got. And I know they like who they got. And they’ll be prepared, we’ll be prepared. It’s going to be, again, a really exciting matchup. And I’m really excited for our fans. Our fans have an opportunity to really affect the game tremendously. Last week was fantastic, the best walk of champions that we’ve had in the several years that we’ve been here, by a long way. I think opening up maybe that area to the tailgating provided more of an opportunity for people really to be fully immersed in game day and what that’s all about. I think that’s super cool. Our players feed off of that, that additional emotion. That’s real. When we came out of the stadium, that was fantastic. So we’re going to need them. It’s going to take all of us on Saturday night.