It’s a weird vibe to the week for Oklahoma as the Sooners get ready to hit the road for the first time this season, visiting Nebraska.
The weirdness factor was multiplied Sunday afternoon when the Huskers fired head coach Scott Frost, leaving Mickey Joseph as the interim head coach.
When Nebraska came to OU last year, you could tell a lot of people were talking about watching the game on TV. Now with Brent Venables, though, you’re getting real first-hand accounts of what OU-Nebraska battles have been about in the past.
So you know he’s not overlooking Saturday in Lincoln, and sounds like OU is getting all its pieces back at the right time.
“We're as healthy as we've been all fall camp right now,” said Venables at his Tuesday afternoon press conference. “And so it's good thing for us. Expect to get Wanya back here this week, and I'm hopeful Key Lawrence is back as well as Robert Congel. Hope we may get the first opportunity to see Nic Anderson as long as he doesn't have any setbacks during the week.”
The big one, to a lot of OU fans, is Wanya Morris getting ready to make his 2022 debut. He missed the first two games of the season because of off the field issues, but he’s coming back.
Strangely enough, because Morris wasn’t rolling with the starters the last three weeks, it has meant he got a lot of work against the defensive starters as part of the offensive scout team.
“He's been on the scout team for the last three weeks, so he's getting good-on-good work against good defensive ends,” Venables said. “You go on the scout team and you're going to go against guys who aren't quite on that level. Then when we go good on good, he's been able to work in there some as well.
“He's shown some good spirit about it, all things considered. I'm not sure if he's rusty. If it is, it's because maybe he got the jitters. Otherwise, there should be no excuse. He's been working at a high pace against good players for the last several weeks.”
Battling the environment
Venables talks all the time about adversity and how you handle it. His first road game as a head coach might provide some more of that.
He’s doing all he can to make it a little uncomfortable for his team, staying an hour away from Lincoln just to get a feel of what rough waters could be like.
Then there are the freshmen. OU has used several in prominent roles in the initial two games. The only way you’re going to know if they’re ready for the moment, well, is to find out in a hostile environment.
“I think you gotta go through it,” Venables said. “You talk them through it, you create a vision for it. There's nothing like being in it, but mentally we've got to do a great job of mentally getting them ready, focus on us, focus on Oklahoma, being inside out, control what we can control.”
Huskers’ back against the wall
Every single player and coach asked about Nebraska this week has echoed the thought of knowing they’re going to get the Huskers’ best.
Venables wasn’t any different, but he added another wrinkle as to why he believes that will be the case Saturday.
“I think people will be on edge. There will be a lot of emotion in the stadium,” Venables said. “I know this: When I've had my back against the wall in this profession, I feel like I've always responded and I've shown the pressure has brought out the best in me.
“That, to me, is what you'll see from the Nebraska team. I think they've had 13 one-score games in the last year. They've done a nice job recruiting good players. They've got good schemes.
Casey Thompson one more time
The storyline has been a fun one for years and gets one more chapter with Nebraska quarterback Casey Thompson facing the Sooners one more time.
Facing OU for the second year in a row but with a different team. Thompson was sensational against OU as the Texas quarterback last season, and the OU legacy, son of Charles Thompson, will get a final crack at his childhood favorite to see what he can do.
“He can extend plays. He’s done a great job. He’s made some plays downfield where it looked like he was dead to rights,” Venables said. “He’s a winner. He’s been a winner his whole life. I can’t really explain whatever happened at Texas to make him want to transfer in the first place, I don’t know. I literally don’t know. I’ve never had that conversation with him. It doesn’t really matter so I haven’t spent any time with that.
“But very talented. And comes from — that’s the heritage of that family. Competitive, tough, instinctive, winner, leaders, so he’s talented. On top of that he’s very confident. And then he’s in a system with a coordinator he’s a really confident guy, too. A really good coach fundamentally and he puts him in a position to be successful.”
Thompson and OU were close to coming together in the transfer portal this winter before Thompson decided Nebraska would be a much better option toward him getting a starting spot.
No hard feelings from Venables at all about that decision.
Marvelous Marvin always up to the task
Wide receiver Marvin Mims helped OU’s offense get out of its funk late in the first half and find its footing the rest of the way last weekend.
That’s just who Mims has been at OU and is and will continue to be. Venables isn’t taking that talent, that character for granted.
“He epitomizes what you want an Oklahoma football player to look like — work ethic, accountability, dependability, reliability — he’s got all the 'abilities' and he certainly has a lot of gifts,” Venables said. “You want your best players to be your best leaders and you want guys to be about it and be doers and not takers and talking about it.
“He's meek, but he's strong. He’s somebody that has a great presence to him that you don’t need to hear him talk, and he don’t ever talk, but we don’t need to hear him talk, because what he’s all about is very loud. Just an incredible example of what it should look like from a student-athlete.”
Venables continued with this brilliant line, ‘everything he does, he autographs with excellence.’
