SEC Media Day: Five Questions for Oklahoma's Brent Venables

SECMD: 5 questions for BV

The Oklahoma Sooners take center stage on Wednesday in Atlanta for Day 3 of SEC Media Days.

It’s entirely likely that outgoing athletic director Joe Castiglione could step down before the end of the season, and the next AD likely will have no personal ties to head coach Brent Venables.

Coming off another 6-7 season — just 2-6 in SEC play — Venables’ job is on the line in 2025, and starting today, he has some hard questions he needs to answer.

Here are five questions Venables should hear at some point on Wednesday:

1. What is your plan for staying plugged into and communicating with the offense while you’re calling the defense?

One thing Venables has shown in the past is a tendency to take off his head coaching hat while the Sooners are on defense.

Therein lies the curse of being a defensive savant, perhaps.

In his first year at the helm of the OU offense, Jeff Lebby could have used some oversight, but too often was left to his own devices. Lebby was much better in his second season, but the final play in the loss at Oklahoma State — a 1-yard pass on fourth-and-3 — should have been discussed a little more. Same with a couple of plays in the loss at Kansas.

And some of the plays that Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley came up with last season absolutely needed an extra set of eyes — whether in the staff room leading up to the game or from the sideline or coaches box on gameday.

Now Venables doesn’t have the familiarity of a Ted Roof to run the defense on gamedays, or the luxury of a Zac Alley to competently call the signals while he talks to his offensive coordinator.

Venables, whose annual compensation is just north of $8 million a year, has appointed himself as defensive coordinator in 2025 because, he says, “I’m good at it.”

He better be. That’s an awful lot of money to pay for just a defensive coordinator.

2. How has your new athletic trainer, Jonathan Gress, made a difference on the medical staff?

It’s probably too early to answer this one directly — what happens from August through November will determine how successful OU’s efforts have been — but surely Venables has been apprised of what impact the changes have had so far, or at least what can be expected.

A close examination of the medical staff — and any and all procedures — were necessary after such an impossibly disastrous 2024. 

Wide receivers went down last year like ducks at a shooting gallery. Offensive linemen also wore a hole in the rug outside the training room. 

So much of last season’s shortcomings as a team could easily be blamed on bad luck. No OU team has ever endured that kind of misery at just one or two positions.

But, whether bad luck or lack of oversight or medical incompetence, the forces that conspired to have it all happen in Norman in a five-month span have begun to be addressed with the hiring of Gress.

A Norman native, Gress returns to OU, where he got his master’s in physical therapy in 2008. He spent the last seven years with the New Orleans Saints, where he was director of rehabilitation, creating and implementing comprehensive treatment plans for all athletes, development and administration of risk assessments and subsequent injury reduction programs, and evaluation of athletic injuries and illnesses, according to an OU press release.

It’s not been made public yet how Gress’ duties will mesh the with the rest of the medical staff or if any more changes are planned. Accountability is key.

From SoonerSports.com, Geoff Lau will begin his 14th season at OU and has served as director of rehab for football since 2021, Robert Fulton is starting his 22nd season at OU and since 2022 has been the Associate AD/Athletic Medicine, and Dylan Baker, Hailey Perese and Luke Spitz are all back as athletic trainers for the football team as of mid-July.

Venables grew visibly frustrated throughout last season having to answer repeated questions about the availability of injured players, occasionally expressing that he didn’t have the answers he wanted.

Was last year just a galacitic one-off, or some kind of trend? 

3. Will Jaydn Ott be your RB1, or will DeMarco Murray get to keep rotating those guys without any discernible pattern?

Running backs coach DeMarco Murray’s mysterious methodology for choosing the rotation over the last two or three years was, week to week, a confounding exercise.

One game, Jovantae Barnes might be the most productive runner, then Barnes might not play the following week. Tawee Walker might seem to have the job locked down, then no carries the next game. Eric Gray, Marcus Major, Gavin Sawchuk, Taylor Tatum, Xavier Robinson — none of them seemed to know their own status on the depth chart from week to week whether they had a big game (Robinson strafed Alabama for 107 yards and two touchdowns, then hardly played at LSU) or a DNP.

Gray eventually and clearly separated himself as the Sooners’ most consistent running back in 2022, which largely removed any subjectivity on Murray’s part.

Now it would be a surprise if Jaydn Ott didn’t do the same thing. Two years ago, Ott ran for 1,315 yards at Cal. His first two seasons, he averaged better than 5 yards per carry. Last year he suffered a setback with an ankle injury, but he’s supposedly healthy now. His film indicates he’s easily the Sooners’ most talented running back.

If Ott can stand out, will Murray see it? If Murray doesn’t, will Venables step in?

4. How much influence will Kevin Wilson have on Bill Bedenbaugh’s decisions on the offensive line personnel?

Long before Bill Bedenbaugh took over the highly subjective title of college football’s best offensive line coach, Kevin Wilson held it.

Wilson came to OU in 2002 as Bob Stoops’ offensive line coach, and before he was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2005-06 (and switched to tight ends and fullbacks), he put out some dominant o-lines.

As Venables’ offensive analyst in 2025, the former head coach and award-winning offensive coordinator brings an incalculable amount of experience and gravitas back to Norman. As an offensive analyst, Wilson will have Venables’ ear. As assistant o-line coach, he’ll have Bedenbaugh’s attention.

Injuries (see above) decimated last year’s offensive line, so lots of players got valuable reps. But now, if everyone is relatively healthy, will Bedenbaugh/Wilson favor age and experience (Jacob Sexton and Jake Taylor), or will they favor consistency (Logan Howland and Heath Ozaeta) or will they favor youth and potential (Michael Fasusi and Ryan Fodje)? 

Lots of candidates, lots of questions. How big a role will Wilson play in finding the Sooners’ best five?

5. What’s your plan for figuring out the new recruiting matrix alongside Jim Nagy and his staff, and how do you catch up in the 2026 class?

Jim Nagy’s arrival in February as OU’s general manager gave the program instant credibility and a professional look. His addition of five staffers so far — Lake Dawson, Taylor Redd, Kale Pearson, Stacey Ford and Charlie Parkinson, alongside returning director of scouting Drew Hill — has fully fleshed out Nagy and Venables’ vision for what a personnel department should look like, although Nagy has said he’d eventually like to have a staff of eight or nine.

Nagy has also said he’s eager to see what Oklahoma’s first full recruiting class looks like at this time next year. Having just signed on five months ago, he’s joined the chase for 2026 prospects in mid-race.

He and Venables have both used the word “collaborative” when describing their role. Neither man works for the other, per se, but their vision for high school recruiting, transfer portal research and roster retention — all while keeping an eye on the reality of spending on revenue sharing and NIL — must be in absolute lock step for it to work.

The Sooners’ 2026 class currently ranks 24th nationally, according to Rivals, and is 34th, per 247Sports.

That won’t fly in the SEC, and Venables and Nagy both know it.

Nagy talked about finding value recruits according to the OU staff’s own grading scale. That is, if a Rivals 5-star and a Rivals 3-star are close in his eyes, he’ll go with the 3-star because he doesn’t want to overpay for a player that someone else thinks is better.

OU currently has 15 players committed in the ’26 class. Most of the top 25 has 20 or more (247 Sports No. 1 USC has 31; No. 19 North Carolina has 32).

But Tuesday, on the same day Texas took its turn at SEC Media Days, the Longhorns got verbal commitments from TWO 5-stars in the 2026 class, giving them five prospects signing this December who bring 5-star credentials.

OU currently has zero.

Can Venables and Nagy catch up?