ARDMORE — Brent Venables is set to be in Norman for a long time.

The OU board of regents voted to approve a new six-year contract for Venables during its meeting on Friday. The new contract begins this season will begin with the 2024 season and runs through the 2030 season.

Venables' new contract is worth an average of $8.6 million per year for a total of $51.6 million. The contract includes a $250,000 bonus for winning the SEC championship game and a $1 million bonus if the Sooners win the national championship.

Venables was hired from Clemson as the Sooners' new football coach in Dec. 2021, when he was originally signed to a six-year deal worth $43.5 million. The contract, which paid him $7.1 million last year, made him the 17th-highest paid coach in college football. He was entering the third year of his former deal before receiving a new contract.

Now, the new contract will see him lead the Sooners in their first few seasons as a member of the SEC.

That was a big part of why the Sooners felt it necessary ink a new deal now.

"The importance of not just talking about stability and the forward thinking and what our program wants to do in tracking towards future success and demonstrating it... I think our move in the contract for coach Venables is a perfect example of that," OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said," and what he's been doing since he's been on campus for two years and we're moving into a new league and setting the foundation in the right place for us to be successful going forward and pursue championships."

The Sooners went 6-7 in Venables' first season at the helm before they showed real progress in 2023, finishing with a 10-3 record and third place in the Big 12 regular-season standings. Venables has a 16-10 record as a head coach.

"He's worked for three of the greatest coaches that college football will ever see, and they all were part of doing it differently... He's been able to see people-driven cultures that are focused on the key and most important elements. Getting into this role himself, he's taken the best of it from everybody and made it his own. Now you see and have seen over the last two years how he's implemented it and how he prioritizes.

"There's no one that has more energy than him. He's everywhere."

In addition to adjusting Venables' contracts, the regents addressed several other assistants.

OU defensive ends coach Miguel Chavis saw his salary raised to $690,000 in 2024 and $740,000 for 2025 and beyond, with his contract also being extended through Jan. 2027. Running backs coach DeMarco Murray's contract was also extended through 2027 with a raise to $800,000 in 2024, $840,000 in 2025 and $865,000 in 2026.

This offseason, every assistant has received a pay raise and an extension through 2027. That was also a priority before Venables received a new contract.

"He's done a fantastic job assimilating a terrific job," Castiglione said. "There were several people on the staff that were targeted and offered jobs at top-15 programs this offseason, and we were able to work with him to retain all of them."

Former OU player Curtis Lofton was also approved as the Sooners' new general manager, which included a raise from $101,500 to $300,000.

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