Brent Venables makes bold admission about being HC of Oklahoma

Brent Venables has got to be feeling good about where the Oklahoma Sooners are in his fourth season with the program.

There have certainly been ups and downs for him in Norman, but he currently has the Sooners ranked No. 8 in the College Football Playoff, and they've got a date with an Alabama Crimson Tide team that they've already beaten this season in the first round.

The Sooners have the goods to make a run through the CFP, and that's a huge swing of momentum for Venables, who went just 6-7 in Oklahoma's first campaign in SEC play last season.

Last season was tough, but Venables and the Sooners have bounced back and have proven they belong in the conference.

That's not to say Venables hasn't felt the pressure during his time as head coach, though, because the expectations are high at a place like Oklahoma. That's also not to say that he hasn't read some of the negative headlines in seasons like 2022 and 2024, when Oklahoma went just 6-7.

It doesn't bug him, though, because he tries to keep it all in perspective. Ultimately, it's just football, and it's just a job.

“My purpose is not attached to the head coach at Oklahoma. Best title I’ve got is as a dad and a husband and then a believer. So, I keep things in their rightful place,” Venables said in a news conference on Monday (h/t On3). “I put everything I got into everything I do. I love what I do. I like the good times. I like to be doubted. There’s several people here, you’re doing your jobs, you’ve had to say the bad things, too, about us, about me and that’s cool."

Brent Venables accepts the pressure of coaching the Oklahoma Sooners 

It's worth remembering that folks at this level of college football are the ultimate competitors. They use everything they can, real or not, to fuel themselves.

We usually think about athletes using bad press clippings as motivation, but head coaches can do the same thing. Venables is a former linebacker himself, mind you, so he's clearly carried over some of those competitive juices that make a player want to run through a brick wall for their team.

“I don’t hold on to it. I remember, but I don’t hold on to it," Venables said of the criticism that he's faced in the past four seasons.

Ultimately, Oklahoma is in a good spot, and that's because Venables has embraced the pressure that comes along with stewarding the Sooners. 

"Nobody cares more deeply than me, and I carry that heavy burden of wanting people to have pride, that love [of] Oklahoma," he said. 

The next step for this team is making a run through the CFP. The Sooners haven't won a national championship since 2000, so they have to feel like they're due.