We’re getting closer and closer. We’ve reached August, and Oklahoma is about to hit the practice field to begin preseason camp Friday.

The time for talking is almost done, but first-year head coach Brent Venables was back at it Tuesday morning at local media day explaining what his goals are for the next month as OU gets ready for the season opener vs. UTEP on Sept. 3.

Venables had a decision about how to spend the eight hours per week the coaches were allowed with the players during the summer, and he spent that time aiming to increase the confidence of everyone across the board.

“We chose to continue to educate and develop our guys with the Xs and Os and fundamentals – things of that nature,” Venables said. “So we spent a little bit more time trying to continue to create momentum and confidence in those things trying to go into the season.

“It’s very simple in regards to expectations every day to put one foot in front of the other in a development standpoint. And proving that we can continue to build their confidence, their sureness, their confidence, their aggressiveness, through the work that we put in. It’s a daily focus for improvement, more than anything else.”

Confidence and fundamentals. They sound like simple things, but focusing on the basics can go a long way toward execution.

The goal of showing the players all the work they’ve done since January has been worth it and has prepared them for what’s to come in September and beyond.

“We want a confident, physical, tough, blue-collar work ethic team,” Venables said. “Coming out of fall camp, I want our guys to be incredibly confident through the work that we put in over the last several months. Certainly, fall camp is a huge part of that.

“You continue to develop fundamentals and still maintain strength during fall camp with a good, detailed, organized schedule. Our job is to bring them out better prepared than when we went into fall camp. There’s a lot of intentionality that goes into that.”

Health not a concern

There were plenty of minor injuries for OU throughout the course of the spring, but there was nothing that screamed a permanent injury had occurred.

Throughout summer conditioning, there were zero reports of any major injuries going down and it sounds like OU is as healthy as can be heading into the first practice.

“We’re probably 99 percent healthy, nothing that we’re really concerned about,” Venables said. “With that other 1 percent, hopefully in the first couple of weeks, we’ll have everybody ready to go. I feel great about the health of our team, the gains that we’ve made in the weight room – our strength, our size – we have a bunch of guys who have PR’d through the course of the summer.

“They’ve trimmed up, lost body fat, gained muscle – mission accomplished. So I think our guys are really in a good, confident, strong position going into camp.”

Venables said no huge position changes have occurred, but everything is still a work in progress in terms of maybe linemen working inside and outside, that type of thing.

Messing with Schmidty still works

One of many reasons why OU fans believe 2022 isn’t going to be a repeat of 2021 is the return of Jerry Schmidt leading the strength and conditioning program.

Although you could see some gains in that department in the spring, everybody knows ‘messing with Schmidty’ isn’t a real thing until the summer comes around.

What worked in 1999 can still work in 2022 as it sounds like Schmidt has still been able to connect with today’s players but bring that old school grit back to Norman.

“I think that position has always been valued for developing toughness, certainly getting your guys in shape and getting them stronger and getting them to buy into the value of weight room and nutrition,” Venables said. “And now, you know, all the other areas of player wellness, elite recovery and sports science, things of that nature, tying all that together.

“But he's incredibly important — he and his staff. And he's only one person. He's got to be the leader of it, but he's got to have a staff too, that can serve the players in all the right ways and so whether that's position specific, or again, challenging and taking guys to some tough, dark places.”

You’re hearing it repeatedly about the body transformations. Venables didn’t want to single out anybody when asked, but he believes the overall team had the buy-in required to succeed under Schmidt.

Theo Wease said he’s added 10 pounds. David Ugwoegbu went the other way, dropping 20 pounds. The work was put in to do whatever was deemed necessary.

“Up to this point, he's had the same kind of impact that he had when we all got here in 1999,” Venables said. “He has a way, a very unique way of always raising the standard and keeping guys uneasy, not allowing them to get comfortable.

“But our guys have bought into that in a very short amount of time. And guys got great respect for him. He's tough on them, but he's fair, incredibly demanding, and never satisfied and he's always at 10 every day.”

2023 class on the rise

Just four weeks ago, OU’s 2023 recruiting class was ranked No. 41 in the country. Add 10 commitments, with nine of them being four-star or better, and the Sooners are now No. 7 in the country.

There was zero panic in June from Venables and company. At the same time, there’s zero celebration going on Aug. 2, too. The work isn’t over, and there are still pieces left to add.

“Although maybe some other people got more commitments earlier, that we would get the right ones at the right time, that had the depth of what commitment really looks like and where it really had roots,” Venables said. “Just because they commit doesn't mean everything's over. For us, you’ve got to continue to recruit them like they're not committed, because you don't sign until December.

“But you feel really good about where we're at right now. We feel like we're in a really strong position at every position across the board that we've recruited and we're continuing to recruit, where we're at relationship-wise with these recruits and their families.”

The Sooners utilized the recruiting calendar to their full advantage. Whether it was the Champ U Family BBQ on June 3 weekend, or The Party at the Palace last Friday, events went incredibly well to put OU in the best position going forward.