Former Texas assistant praises culture Brent Venables is building at OU

Possibly the biggest coaching change around the Big 12 that happened early this offseason in terms of the impact on the Texas football program occurred up in Norman, OK. The Red River rival Oklahoma Sooners wound up having to replace their departed head coach Lincoln Riley, who left Norman to take the head coaching job with the USC Trojans last fall.

Oklahoma replaced the departed Riley with the former Clemson Tigers defensive coordinator Brent Venables. An Oklahoma alumni himself, Venables will bring a much different mindset and program culture to the table in Norman compared to his predecessor Riley.

Venables got to work quickly trying to replace some of the insane losses that the Sooners were taking in terms of departures to the NCAA Transfer Portal in his first couple of months after getting hired as the Oklahoma head coach. He had to also get to work fast to keep Oklahoma on the right track on the recruiting trail in the last few months following the departure of Riley.

Yet, it still sounds like Venables is generating quite the buzz in the short time since first arriving in Norman a few months ago.

A former assistant of the Longhorns under ex-head coach Tom Herman spoke very highly of the culture Venables is establishing in Norman already. Former Texas cornerbacks coach and new Oklahoma co-defensive coordinator Jay Valai mentioned in an interview this week essentially that there’s a ton of passion and intensity in the program under Venables now.

Former Texas football CB coach Jay Valai speaks highly of Brent Venables with OU

At one point in this interview, Valai even said that it feels like you’re on “a drug” constantly when the coaches are around Venables. That still traces back to the intensity Valai was talking about with Venables at the helm.

Venables really looks like he’s trying to get a lot of energy injected into this program this offseason. He’s obviously already got his coaches speaking very highly of him.

However, it’s also interesting to note how far Valai has come since his time as the Texas cornerbacks coach. Valai was on staff with the Longhorns back in 2020 under Herman. He spent one year as the Texas cornerbacks coach before taking a job under Nick Saban as their cornerbacks coach with the Alabama Crimson Tide.

And now he’s taking on an even bigger role with the Oklahoma coaching staff as a co-defensive coordinator/cornerbacks coach.

It’s pretty clear that Valai is making a lot of strides in a short period of time in terms of growing his profile around the college football coaching ranks.

Oklahoma is currently in the midst of its first spring camp under Venables. Meanwhile, Texas is in the midst of its second spring camp under head coach Steve Sarkisian.

Both Texas and Oklahoma will round-up camp with their spring football games, set to take place on April 23.