Everything Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said about facing South Carolina

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables spoke to the media on Tuesday to preview the Sooners’ upcoming road trip to South Carolina. Kickoff on Saturday is at 12:45 p.m. on SEC Network.

Here’s everything Venables had to say about facing the Gamecocks.

Opening statement

Good afternoon. Got a big one on the road. Really, kind of our first true road test when it comes to handling a different type of environment. Pretty much what you see in the SEC, week in and week out. Going to Columbia and playing Coach (Shane) Beamer’s team, they’re 3-3 right now, they’re dang good, is what I would say. They played Missouri on the road, a 20-29 game, a one-score game all the way till the end. And the same thing with LSU here this last week, rushed for over 200 yards at LSU. And it’s a 17-10 game all the way till just the last couple of possessions of the game. Vanderbilt played them earlier in the year and played really well, created some explosive plays, had some huge stops, some bunch of lost yardage plays early, and really stifled a few drives that they had going and created some explosive plays offensively. Otherwise, again, they’ve done a really good job. They lost a bunch of guys from a year ago, and offensively better personnel than what they had a year ago around the quarterback.

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“(LaNorris Sellers) is one of the toughest players to defend, in my opinion, in the country. His arm talent, his strength, his speed. He’s bigger and faster and stronger than most of your guys. And I love the heart and the toughness that he plays with. They’ve done an awesome job in the special teams. They’ve got an NCAA-leading six non-offensive touchdowns between what they’ve been able to do defensively, three defensive touchdowns and three punt returns for touchdowns. They got a DB, number four, (Vicari) Swain. Man, he’s lightning in a bottle and really aggressive. They lead the SEC in forced turnovers with 12. So they’ve been really aggressive in what they do. They’ve got great length and strength in their front seven. Do a really good job. Coach (Clayton) White’s been there for a good while now, and he’s really done a nice job. I know exactly what it looked like when he got there, and what he’s been able to build has been pretty remarkable.

“But they’ve done a great job in all three phases. I said this last night on my coach’s show that they take pride in winning in all three phases. And it’s a really physical football team. They’re very comfortable being in a lot of one-score games as well. And Coach (Mike) Shula, he was a head coach, I think, at Alabama, when we went to Tuscaloosa several years ago, 2003, I believe. And he does a really nice job as well. Dylan Stewart, one of the premier pass rushers in all of college football. We got to see him up close and personal last year. They played really well when they came here last year, and to hit us right in the mouth, basically three defensive touchdowns, three straight opening drives, three defensive turnovers, and two of them touchdowns, and the other one led to a quick touchdown.

“So we need to play really efficiently. We’ve got to take care of the football. We’ve got to get better. We got to play more efficiently offensively and for four quarters. Defensively, we can’t have any lapses. We’ve got to force turnovers. That’s been a staple of who we are for decades, and for whatever reason, they’re just not coming like we need them to come this year. They can be game changers and create momentum for your football team, certainly, field position, scoring opportunities, etc. So, you know, not a better time to get it started than this week. It’ll be a great atmosphere. Early morning game, they’ve always done a great job at home with their home crowd and whatnot. So excited to move forward. Our guys had a really good mindset to them. I think mindset, it’s a lot more important than talent. And as I said last night, again, disappointed in the loss, but not discouraged. This is a team that’s talented and they’re tough-minded, they believe, and they’re together. And when you put those two things together, being again, believing and being together, man, I think it’s a very powerful thing. And so looking forward to getting back on the field this afternoon and putting in our game plans and again, going on the road this week.”

What makes Dylan Stewart and Bryan Thomas Jr. such a handful, especially for some tackles that haven’t had as much experience in the SEC?

“Just really explosive, really powerful. They’re longer versions of R Mason Thomas, longer and bigger, and just really strong and physical. They put a lot of pressure on your edges. So nothing more complicated than that.”

Taylor Heim and Peyton Bowen were talking about trying to play LaNorris Sellers. How good is this cat?

“You saw him out here, and he’s just a freak. He really is. He’s really becoming an excellent quarterback. He threw for 300 yards against Missouri a couple of weeks ago in Columbia, and man, he’s running to his left one time, and it’s 3rd and 37, and next thing you know, it’s 4th and 3 because he throws a freaking dart across his body. He’s running for his life, running to his left. He’s a right-handed guy and just throws a freaking dart for great accuracy right on the sideline. He’s got great toughness to him. He’s really hard to bring down. He ducks down and makes it, you know, he pops out of there. He’s really hard to tackle. It’s hard to get two or three guys to get him down, let alone one. You’re lucky to get one guy on him, right? They’ve got five guys up front to block, plus a back. That’s six. Sometimes it’s seven with the tight end. And then if you’ve got one guy free, that’s eight.

“Now you got all these freaks out here, (Nyck) Harbor and Vandrevius (Jacobs), these guys are really good. They’re really fast. So they’ve done a really good job of putting good players around him as well. And so you don’t want to be in a whole lot of those one-on-ones either. So makes it hard to decide on how you play him, but a great challenge. Glad that they talked about him and they watched the tape. They played against him once, and he’s been able to do that against a lot of people. So I think, LSU, you know, they end up winning the game, but, man, there’s nothing easy about it. He had some excellent plays against them. They’ve got an excellent defense. Again, they rush for 250 yards against them. And you can’t just focus on him. They did a really good job getting some really good backs. Rahsul (Faison), the back, had an NFL draft grade somewhere in the third, fourth round. Coach (Nate) Dreiling coached him at Utah State, and he was a really good late pickup for them. And so they got good players around him as well.”

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