SOONERS MAKE A SPLASH | Venables & OU players debut with fanfare at SEC Media Days

DALLAS – So, Oklahoma coach Brent Venables – in his first-ever press opportunity as a member of the Southeastern Conference, at SEC Media Days on Tuesday at The Omni Hotel here – was asked if, since Texas is also going into the SEC this season, would he “share information” with UT coach Steve Sarkisian.

“Probably not,” said Venables, with a laugh, and to laughs around the room full of media.

Venables and the Sooners will journey into the deep waters of the SEC this football season, and the Longhorns are coming along, as well – Sarkisian will face the media on Wednesday.

Exactly half of the SEC’s 16 coaches have already done so, including Venables, who was greeted with a full house on Tuesday just after lunch, and a hearty interest from the media, as it seems everyone has been literally counting the days until OU and Texas made their way into the league.

That number, by the way, is 45 – as in, 44 days until Oklahoma kicks off its 2024 season as a member of the conference, at home against Temple on Friday, Aug. 30.

Their first game against a fellow SEC member is also at home, on Saturday, Sept. 21 against Tennessee – and none other than former OU quarterback Josh Heupel, who now coaches the Volunteers (more on that momentarily).

Yes, the media was in rare form Tuesday in Dallas.

Venables was even asked if he thought the “Horns down” hand motion should be penalized.

“Should be penalized? Like on the field?,” Venables said, with a smile, somewhat incredulously. “Is that what you’re referring to? I don’t really have an opinion. Football is a game of emotion and intensity and passion, and if they say that’s going to be a penalty, then don’t do it. And if they say it’s, you know, a free-for-all, then have at it. So everybody is different. Everybody celebrates different. But whatever rules that they have in place, we’ll follow those.”

One thing that will remain the same, even with both leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, is that the ‘Horns and Sooners will still meet at the Cotton Bowl on Saturday, Oct. 12. Aside from that, does Venables see things changing much between the rivals?

“I don’t,” he said. “I don’t. It’s as deep-seated and hate-filled and emotional of a rivalry as there is in all of college football. So I don’t see how the conference affiliation will make a big difference. What I would say is that, you know, that’s one of many games that you’re going to have to find a way to grind it out. If you think that one is emotionally taxing, you’re going to go into a lot of venues that the pageantry is going to be real, the stadiums are going to be completely full and a lot of people are going to hate your guts for three hours or so. So I don’t see it diminishing that series and the emotion and the pageantry, the intensity of it whatsoever.”

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey noted in his address on Monday to open SEC Media Days that the conference has led the nation in attendance for almost three decades. And in every single version of the College Football Playoff (14), the SEC has been represented, often twice.

With the addition of Oklahoma and Texas – two tradition-rich football powers – that only increases, tenfold. Venables was asked his opinion about the two rivals joining the conference, and just the conference in general going forward.

“Well, again, I think it’s a partnership of elite with elite,” he said. “And, again, two programs that in the history of college football take a back seat to nobody. The SEC doesn’t take a back seat to anybody. From our leadership to the quality of the teams — and, really, it’s every single athletic team on those campuses; it’s unmatched. And so we both have programs that have had elite-level success with all of our athletic programs, certainly football included. And I just think it fortifies what was already the strongest conference in all of college football.”

Venables was on the coaching staff at OU under Bob Stoops when Heupel was the QB back in 2000, a Sooners’ national championship season.

The two were reunited, of sorts, on Tuesday as both were there in their official capacity as SEC coaches. Heupel’s address was first, and he was asked about that date this fall in Norman.

“First time I will have been back,” Heupel said. “It’ll be unique for myself to be on the other side of the sideline. Obviously there’s been a lot of Saturdays where I was on the home sideline. But there are so many great teammates, friends that will be there. Got great respect for the university, the program. A lot of friends that are coaching on the opposing sideline that day, former teammates that will be coaching on that opposing sideline, too. So it’ll be unique to be back there, but excited to be there.

“You know, Coach (Mike) Leach recruits me. Brent, I got great respect for Brent, playing while he was coaching, but also being beside him in the staff room. I don’t know that I ever forecasted they were coming into this league, Oklahoma. It’s just — those are two really good brands coming in. Obviously Oklahoma, my experience there, I think it’s an exciting time to be in this league and really unique that I’ll have an opportunity to go back to Oklahoma. It’ll be a completely different viewpoint on that Saturday afternoon or evening, whenever the game is. But it’ll be unique for me. Got family that still lives back there. A lot of friends, teammates, coaches that I stay in contact that coached me while I was there, and obviously administration, too. So it’ll be a unique Saturday.”

The respect Heupel has for Venables is mutual, Venables said.

“I have this deep appreciation for Josh, certainly first and foremost as a player,” Venables said. “To experience my first national championship as a coach, I’ve always looked back and said, man, we couldn’t have done it without Heupel. His leadership, what he was able to do from a transformation standpoint to our locker room, you know, the guts and the toughness that he played through that 2000 season. So I’ve always held him up here on this pedestal when it comes from a player’s standpoint.

“No surprise, as a coach’s son, the level of success that he has had as a coach. I’ve stayed in touch with him pretty much every step of the way through this process. We competed on the field in 2014, and he went to Utah State and then to Central Florida and then to Tennessee. So we’ve stayed in touch through those moments of success and some of the moments, the challenges a football season will bring you.

“So a great friend. He and his wife, Dawn, and their children, really good friends of ours. And just really happy for him and the success that he’s had. No surprise. He’s always been a winner.”

The Sooners, who finished 10-3 last season with a loss in the Alamo Bowl to Arizona, enter their first season in the SEC with a new quarterback, Jackson Arnold, after the departure of Dillon Gabriel, who had a year of eligibility left. Gabriel, who had transferred to OU from Central Florida, transferred again, this time to Oregon.

Arnold got playing time in that loss to Arizona.

Arnold, though, is ready for the challenge this year, Venables noted.

“Jackson understands better than anybody what goes into being a quarterback of a football team of the locker room, the leader, the face, the responsibilities, the challenges,” Venables said. “What I feel best about and have the most peace about is his ability to be able to handle the highs and the lows, the challenges, the success, the failure that a season will bring you. Nobody is more competent or more ready, even though he’s a young player, and we’ve gotta, in some ways, be the headlights for him. That’s why they call us coach. But his skill, his arm talent, his toughness, his instincts, his ability to lead people, bring out the best in people, no question about it, he’s ready for his opportunity and his moment.”

Arnold was present Tuesday and talked to the media.

“After that Arizona game,” Arnold said, “there was a lot of maturing and a lot of growing up that I had to do. Stepping into that QB1 role, I had to be a real leader for us, for our team, and just stepping into that role, I know I need to mature as a person, as a player too. And the person that I am now and the player that I am now has improved drastically from where I was in that bowl game.”

Defensive back Billy Bowman Jr. was also in the house Tuesday, and talked about the challenges of going on the road in the SEC.

“First off, joining the Southeastern Conference, having different opponents that we can go play at different venues, that’s always a great thing to have for the college athlete because we don’t always get to see those places. So going to places like Oxford, Mississippi or Baton Rouge, Louisiana, going out to Auburn for the first road game, those things are going to be fun from just a standpoint of just being there,” Bowman said. “Then again, when we go on the road, it’s us against everybody else. Our fans are always going to travel. But still it’s not a home stadium. So we’re not going to be 80,000, 90,000 deep with Sooner fans. So just going in there with an attack mindset and just be road dogs.”

And don’t think the Sooners’ defense hasn’t heard in the offseason how physical the Sooners’ new league is.

Linebacker Danny Stutsman already addressed it Tuesday afternoon.

“You’ve got to be very physical,” Stutsman said. “Obviously in the SEC, the games are won in the trenches. I think we’ve already had that mindset since spring ball, kind of since the season ended. We had to get bigger, faster, and stronger. Up front we’ve done a phenomenal job this off-season doing everything we do to be able to compete at that level.”