What Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said about Tennessee on Tuesday

What head coach Brent Venables said during his press conference on Tuesday previewing No. 17 Oklahoma (6-2, 2-2) at No. 14 Tennessee (6-2, 3-2 SEC) on Saturday night (7:30 Eastern Time, ABC) at Neyland Stadium:

Opening Statement

“Going to Knoxville this weekend. Got a great opportunity, great challenge. Obviously, playing in an incredibly hostile environment this weekend. There will be a lot of excitement around the game and being on prime time, it’s right on time.

“Tennessee, as ya’ll know, incredibly explosive on offense. They’re second in the country in scoring offense at 46 points a game. They’re third in total offense at over 500 yards a game. Historically speaking for their program through eight games, I think this is the second-most points they’ve scored through eight games in the history of their program. They’re averaging 51 points per game at home in their four games. Within the conference, they lead the conference in scoring at 38 points a game. Four down conversions, they’re tops in the conference.

“They’re really disruptive on defense. 27 sacks, third in the conference and sixth in the country. 7.8 tackles for loss a game. They lead the SEC in turnovers with 14 and they lead the country in defensive touchdowns with five of them.

“They’ve also outscored their opponents, they lead the country in total points in the first quarter, they’ve scored 121 points in the first quarter. Joey Aguilar has done a fantastic job. He’s helped their offense, just being incredibly efficient and explosive. He’s thrown the deep ball with great, great accuracy. He’s allowed them to kind of stay on schedule really through all eight games. He’s been fantastic for them and they’ve got excellent receivers led by Chris Brazzell. Two years ago, I think, he transferred there. He’s big, long, fast. They got three guys that can really go up and get it. And DeSean Bishop is an excellent running back. Tough, physical, really, really good.

“Defensively and offensively, they’ve got both coordinators back in Tim Banks and Joey Halzle. They’re just doing a fantastic job. They’ve got a really good football team right now and present a great, great challenge for us.”

On his role with QB John Mateer’s up-and-down season, getting him back on track

“Just get your arm around him. Talk open and honest with him and help him manage the burden of expectations and the burden of responsibility. Certainly, everything goes through the quarterback. I’ve said this a lot, when you’re playing good people, you can’t have a quarterback that plays poorly and expect to win. But you don’t have to play perfect and win, either. You just have to be able to manage the game well.

“For the most part, he’s done a really good job of that. We’re 6-2. The success that we’ve had is because he’s done a great job of playing well at all the right times. And then, again, collectively around him, we got to play better, as well, to help him. You always, I talk to him from the beginning of the day to the end of the day when we cross paths both here in the building and out on the practice field. What the defense is doing, where the weak spots are, things of that nature.

“My biggest role is in trying to support him and help him manage the responsibility from a leadership standpoint. I’m always talking to all of our players just about the lens you need to have from an offensive and defensive perspective relative to their positions.”

On head coaches being fired across the country

“Obviously, I’m not privy to the details of those individual cases, but this is an anxious time. Exciting time, but an anxious time in college football. There’s never been as much disruption as there is today. Every university, fan base, university-wise from the administration and leadership, they have their own set of standards and priorities. From a fan perspective, man, everybody, they want a piece of that action and I get it. You see too many programs that have been able to have success immediately. And there’s been a lot of programs that have been disrupted that maybe had been used to a level of consistency that maybe they’re not experiencing right now. So, just an anxious time. Lot of emotion in the moment and college football has never lacked for emotion and passion, so I think you’re seeing a little bit of that. But as far as those individual cases, I really don’t have an opinion only because I’m not privy to the information case-by-case.”

Oklahoma defensive back Courtland Guillory bouncing back against Ole Miss, the importance of secondary play against Tennessee’s wide receivers

“Yeah, and they’re not the only ones that are a part of it. But we had 10 (passes broken up) in last weekend’s game. And Courtland was excellent. He had a really good game, was physical, his coverage technique and fundamentals were really good. I always look at the alignments and how we start to play, from a positioning and a leverage standpoint. Where are we at? Are we in a great position or not? Because if you’re going to win late, you typically need to win early within the down. And he was as consistent, probably the most consistent guy that we had. But he plays really strong through the end of the play when you’re talking about defending the pass. And so he was really good. 

“And there’s, again, Robert (Spears), we had the double move into the boundary that they got. We had a zone concept that we were supposed to push our coverage and we didn’t. They hit one late over the middle, which we had been pretty good all day in that regard. The first drive, we were late getting there, closing the middle of the field, and they hit a 25-28 yarder that they tried the first play of the second half, and we defended very well. Almost had a safety on the play. And then they ran a little flood concept to one of the sidelines that we have three defenders and the second-level defenders just gotta sink a little further. I think they dumped it over his head for about a 30-yarder on the sideline there. But otherwise, the secondaries, there’s a lot of good things to build on. 

“We’re gonna be challenged again in maybe a whole different different way this week, from a scheme standpoint, personnel standpoint. Again back-to-back weeks of really excellent receiver skill and quarterback play. But again, I love the guys from where we started the season to where we’re at now. Eli (Bowen) is getting into a good rhythm as well, and Jacobe (Johnson) got in and did some good things. Day Day got in and he did some good things as well as Courtland and our safeties.”

Facing former Oklahoma offensive coordinator Seth Littrell, who is now an analyst at Tennessee  

“Yeah, I don’t think there’ll be any kind of dynamic between Seth and I. I haven’t spoken to him in a long time, but he’s doing a great job, obviously, being a part of the offensive staff and the success that they’ve had this year. But it’s never about two people. This is a players’ game and not a coaches’ game. But he’s doing great. He landed right on his feet.”

What he can take from the Ole Miss game last week and apply it to facing Tennessee’s offense 

“Yeah, I mean, you’re always learning every single week. Every week teaches you about the game, about starting every play with a great alignment, great stance, great eyes, great feet. Understand where your help is, all of those things. So plenty to learn and carry over the success, some of the mistakes that we made. And now the challenge is you’re on the clock to learn a new DNA and new concepts and things of that nature. And your coverage is always tied to your front and vice versa. But our guys are going to be ready to for the challenge of this week and the enormity of what’s in front of them. I know they’re looking forward to it and a good week of practice and being as prepared as we can be.” 

How Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle has handled his position and the pressure that comes with it

“Yeah, just head on, tough mindedness. Always a good honest evaluation, self analysis of what’s good, what isn’t, what we need to do, what we need to lean on, what we need to protect. Very, very thorough and very straightforward, ultra consistent in his approach, his passion, his energy, his toughness, the details, the discipline, those types of things.”

How a defense can prepare to try to defend explosive plays

“Yeah. There’s lots of things that you could do. You don’t know when they’re coming, obviously, what concepts and things of that nature are coming. You sit back and put everybody, protect them on the goal line. And that sounds like a good plan, but then they throw the ball underneath and it turns into a short catch that turns into an explosive play. We had five of them on offense and they had eight, including a couple of runs. And actually this year, I think last year we were in the 70s in the country in explosive plays given up. And this year we’re top five in the country, least in amount of explosive plays. We’ve made a tremendous amount of improvement. And as I pointed out, some of those plays were the explosive plays I was talking about, where we need to be a little better. This is football. They’re going to always be a part of it. You want to limit them. That’s the idea. Teams that win the explosive play battle are going to give themselves an opportunity to win the game. And that’s not certainly the only category, but one that we put a lot of time on, on staying on top of the football, both in run defense and pass defense.” 

Tennessee’s defense forcing 14 turnovers this season, what he has seen on tape

“They’re just really aggressive. They’re physical. That’s typically how it happens. They’ve done a good job getting hands up, batting balls. But they have an aggressive approach.”

How Josh Heupel has evolved as an offensive mind

“Yeah, he’s really good. He’s got great instincts. He understands his personnel. He understands defense as much as he understands offense, probably even more. And he’s done a good job of putting the team together on the offensive side of the ball. And he’s got an aggressive approach. And even from last season structurally in what they do, there’s been some evolvement. So I think if anything, if you ask kind of a broad and an immediate moment question, I would say just kind of the outside looking in, watching him over through the years in different places. He’s always evolved and he’s on to the next best thing for what his team needs. Where maybe they lacked from a previous season, he’s worked hard to attack it and try to make those areas better, the things that he can influence. So whether that’s personnel or it’s scheme or it’s a pace, but he’s well attuned to what they want to do as a play caller. You can tell he’s played the game, how he wants it to go over and over and over as he calls the game. So he’s done a fantastic job.”