As OU closes in on a potential 10 win season, many can’t help but think back to one year ago where instead of envisioning the scenarios that would lead to a Big 12 Championship appearance, the Sooners were just happy to be bowl eligible.
Venables typically doesn’t reflect on a season until its ending, but he acknowledged the improvement his team has made a year later during his weekly press conference on Monday. Though it may not seem like it after being on the ropes against an inferior BYU on Saturday, plenty can be said of the Sooners’ growth from their 6-7 campaign last season.
“I've experienced tremendous success at the very highest level, and it's never been a straight line,” Venables said. “I think having that right perspective is important. Even coming off a game where (it was a) tough, hard fought victory, where we had to overcome several things, whether it's losing our quarterback … not fitting gaps right pretty consistently for most of the day with our linebackers, but still finding a way to win.
“(The) improvement has been incremental in most ways. And we’ll never stop improving as a staff, how I lead and how our players play. My vision is for us to continually invest and be committed to the improvement process.”
Saturday marked OU’s fifth one-score game it’s been in this season, matching last year’s total. The games that come down to the wire are where the Sooners have shown the most improvement. Rather than the 0-5 showing in one-score games last season, OU is 3-2 in 2023.
“There's lots of different moments that you can look at that are going to put you on the right side of winning and losing,” Venables said. “Things like turnovers and penalties are very real, but also putting guys in the right position is a part of it as well.
“... Sometimes it comes down to that last drive of the game, but really, I always look back — just like we did last week even through victory — (and ask), ‘How did we get to this point?’”
Venables saw untimely turnovers as the primary reason for OU’s 27-24 Bedlam loss, which featured two unforced fumbles and an interception. However, for the first time in Venables’ tenure with the Sooners, turnovers decided the outcome of a close game in favor of OU on Saturday. After being bullied by the 14th-ranked rushing attack in the conference, OU escaped Provo at the hands of three turnovers that turned into 21 points.
As for Venables’ point of looking at how those key moments are set up, a 34-30 complete game and victory over Big 12-leading Texas is certainly an example of that, and a better recipe for how OU can sustain winning close games moving forward.
In that type of game, leadership tends to take over, something Venables knows has played into the Sooners’ heightened ability to close out tight games.
“A year ago, we had some guys that were natural leaders,” Venables said. “But there were so many of them (where) everything was brand new for them; I'm not sure if they were able to be the best version of themselves as leaders. That's just the natural transition. We still had great leadership a year ago, but I think there's more depth to that leadership (now).”
Venables has drilled the theme of leadership into his linebackers most, as he’s focused the majority of his coaching career on the position.
“This is a group of men (who) understand they gotta be the backbone of a locker room,” Venables said. “We've got other great leaders, but that's always been my vision, is the linebackers (leading). They've got to take that kind of responsibility, have those kinds of shoulders, and the team needs to follow their lead. I have a very emotional investment in that group, as a longtime position coach there along with (defensive coordinator Ted Roof).”
As OU’s second-year coach nears the time where he’s able to fully reflect on the improvements made, he won’t be looking for moments here and there. It won’t be a tough-it-out BYU win. It won’t be the historical Texas win.
Venables will evaluate team 129 based on its consistency, beginning when the Sooners (9-2, 6-2 Big 12) face TCU (5-6, 3-5) at 11 a.m. Friday in Norman on Fox.
“Consistency is what I'm always looking for,” Venables said. “And when you don't have it, you're always disappointed. For us to be the kind of program that I envision, that is an example of college football and a model of college football, the hardest thing to do in intercollegiate athletics is to have consistency. And that's what we all want.
“The best players I've coached, the best units I've coached, if they've been something they've been consistent.”
