Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables is taking over the defensive play-calling ahead of a pivotal 2025 season. After former defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Zac Alley left for a raise and the same role at West Virginia, Venables pursued former Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, but OU ultimately lost out to Penn State.
So, Venables decided to hire Nate Dreiling to coach the inside linebackers and Wes Goodwin as outside linebackers coach/assistant linebackers coach, and call the plays himself. Venables landed his current job after successful stints as a defensive coordinator at Oklahoma (1999 to 2011) and Clemson (2012-2021). He was the co-defensive coordinator on the 2000 OU team that won the national championship and the defensive coordinator for both the 2016 and 2018 title runs at Clemson.
In a sit-down interview with Josh Pate, who hosts "Josh Pate's College Football Show," Venables further explained why he decided to call the plays, something not many head coaches in college football do anymore.
"Instinctively, that's a very natural space for me," Venables said. "I've got a great staff that several of us have been together for a long time, so there's a deep understanding of how we do what we do. I've got my fingerprints all over the whole defense, always have, always will."
Venables, who called plays as the DC from 2004 to 2021, is one of the best in the business when it comes to managing a defense. He knows he's entering a crucial year, so he made the choice to take that responsibility himself. Despite the defense really always belonging to Venables, his staff features some excellent coaches, such as co-defensive coordinators Todd Bates and Jay Valai, as well as a former Troy defensive coordinator Brandon Hall and a young up-and-comer in Miguel Chavis. They'll help the head coach throughout the week and on game day.
"Why trust a first-time play caller at Oklahoma more than me?" Venables said. "For a long time, I was a play-caller here and in college football, and it was a very comfortable space for me, but I've got a tremendous staff."
Venables also revealed in his interview with Pate that he was the one calling the defense in 2023, when the Sooners went 10-3. Former defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Ted Roof (who called the plays in 2022) was in his second and final season in Norman that year, and rumors swirled all season about who was actually on the headset and had the final say on play calls when the opposition had the ball. Turns out, it was Venables all along, so being a head coach and calling defensive plays isn't new to him in 2025 .
"Two years ago (2023) I called it," Venables said. "We won 10 games. We lost two one-score games on the road. If we make a field goal in one of them, we play Texas again for the Big 12 Championship, and a chance to go to the Playoff, so whatever we did that year was pretty decent. Not good enough, but it was decent."
Roof, who was the DC for the first two years of the Venables era, left after the 2023 season, and Alley was hand-picked to replace him. After a season calling the shots at OU, Alley decided to join his former boss Rich Rodriguez in Morgantown. That's paved the way for Venables to take back play-calling duties in a prove-it season for the fourth-year head coach.
This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire:
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