Brent Venables proved he’s the ‘right guy’ for Oklahoma job with Texas win

Brent Venables entered Year 2 with a lot to prove after going 6-7 in his inaugural season at Oklahoma. After scouring the transfer portal for solutions, he’d so far gotten off to a good start in leading the Sooners to a 5-0 record.

Still, questions remained entering Saturday’s rivalry game against Texas.

That was the loss from last year that was burned in the mind of every OU fan after the Longhorns cruised to a 49-0 victory in a game that was never competitive. Sure, the Sooners had looked better so far this year, but was that the product of an easy schedule? Could they really hang with a Texas team that beat Alabama and looked like a Playoff contender?

Oklahoma answered that last question with a resounding yes, gutting out a tough 34-30 win on a touchdown from quarterback Dillon Gabriel in the final seconds. It was the biggest moment in Venables’ tenure thus far, creating belief that he can carry on the success fans have become accustomed to over the years.

The importance of the victory certainly wasn’t lost on the coach, as George Stoia III of SoonerScoop explained to On3‘s Andy Staples.

“After the game on Saturday, he talked about the game last year and said it was a complete embarrassment and his hands were all over it,” Stoia said. “This year, the word he used was proud. I think he did a lot of self reflection. You look at the guys they went and got in the portal. They didn’t have those type of players. You look at the players they recruited, the game management.

“I thought the game management was — that’s something here in Norman was very critical of Brent a year ago. He wasn’t calling timeouts when he was supposed to. He wasn’t handling the end of games in which they played a lot of close games a year ago. He wasn’t handling those situations right. He handled all that stuff the right way on Saturday.”

Venables saved his timeouts Saturday for when the Sooners desperately needed them. He called two of them on Texas’ second-to-last drive, saving up time for Oklahoma to answer after the Longhorns kicked a field goal to make it 30-27.

That gave the ball back to Gabriel with just over a minute remaining. The quarterback rose to the occasion to complete 5-of-6 passes on that final drive — the only one he missed was called for defensive pass interference — including the game-winning throw to Nic Anderson with 15 seconds left.

The Sooners then held strong for three more plays to secure the win. It was also a big day for that unit, which forced a total of three turnovers and sacked quarterback Quinn Ewers five times.

Overall, it looked like a completely different team from Brent Venables’ first season, and that provides confidence that Oklahoma has the “right guy” for the future. All he needed was a little time to prove so.

“I think that was part of the validation that OU does have the right guy,” Stoia said. “Look what he’s been able to do in just one year. Flipping this roster upside down and also developing the guys that did stick with the program. You can tell there’s just buy-in from this group. I think we’ve always known that, it’s just can they get the results on the field?

“That’s been the question. Everybody says the right things in this program, but it was ‘Can they win the big one? Can they take the next step?’ They did on Saturday.”

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