Vibe is 'just different' at OU right now

Three months. Take a deep breath as it’s already been three months. For some Oklahoma fans, they’re never going to get over the manner in which former head coach Lincoln Riley left the program to head to USC.

For others? It’s a thing of the past, and the Brent Venables era brings about renewed excitement and almost waking up from a state of complacency.

After getting a chance to speak to eight assistant coaches last week, including four first-year defensive coaches and four retained offensive coaches, there’s no other way to say it.

The vibe – it’s just different in Norman right now. Will different ultimately end up as better is obviously something that will be determined, but it’s different.

And different can be good.

“Sometimes you need changes, for things like this to happen, for you to step back and something else comes in and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, how come we haven’t been doing this stuff before?’ He’s very special,” said assistant coach Cale Gundy last Thursday. “We’re in as good a place as we’ve ever been.”

That last sentence is going to be incredibly tough for people on the outside to accept and understand. Because just peeking in, nothing seemed to be going sideways during the Riley years.

How can you say you’re at the best place you’ve been when from 2017-20 the Sooners won four straight Big 12 conference championships and advanced to the four-team college football playoff three times?

No cracks were visible. Talk about 2021, though, and a lot of OU fans are still going to be miffed at how something that looked so dang good on the surface just didn’t come together.

Didn’t come together and felt like it all fell apart as Riley was leaving and seemingly going scorched earth on his way out the door.

Coaching chaos, uncertainty, it was everywhere. Everybody felt it, didn’t matter if you’d been with the program one season or more than 20. Nobody knew. The Venables hire, though, you can tell the coaches who stayed at OU can sense something special is about to happen, like really special.

“It was a tough, tough time that we were going through,” Gundy said. “If you’d known what the outcome was going to be and how things were going to turn out, we’d probably be a lot more relaxed.

“If I knew Brent Venables was going to come here and be the head coach and bring the staff that he’s brought and the changes and direction that we’re going in … I would have slept a lot better at night, I promise you that.”

Venables isn’t the same guy who was the defensive coordinator in Norman all those years ago. He wouldn’t have gotten the job if he was.

All those years as the Clemson defensive coordinator and two things stand out. One, he waited for the right moment. You hear that a lot in coaching circles about not taking the first offer but taking the right offer.

That was Venables. He wasn’t going to leave unless everything was aligned. It is at OU between president Joe Harroz and athletic director Joe Castiglione and going on down the line.

Why leave when you’re happy like Venables was at Clemson? Because the perfect opportunity at the perfect time arrived.

Two, he observed. He noticed what works. And he has taken the best parts he can think of from his mentors in Bill Snyder (Kansas State), Bob Stoops (OU) and Dabo Swinney (Clemson) to help forge his vision of OU.

“I think he's as good as it gets,” offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh said. “I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to work with him, work for him. I think great things are happening. I think the things that we may have been lacking in the past are going to help us get over the hump. That's not talking about anybody; it's just a different way of doing it.”

Again, different. It’s a common response from the offensive coaches still in Norman, and then you see the attitude and values of Venables reflected in the hiring of the defensive staff.

From a guy who is so eager to prove himself like defensive ends coach Miguel Chavis. Or someone who has already been established as one of the best defensive line coaches in the country in Todd Bates. Or someone, like Venables, coming back to Norman a different man like safeties coach Brandon Hall.

When they spoke about why OU, about why now, it resonated. That enthusiasm, that passion becomes infectious across the staff.

This isn’t a stop-gap position. Cornerbacks coach Jay Valai has been down that road lately with Texas (2020) and Alabama (2021). He doesn’t mind being at another blue blood program, but he’s looking to make an imprint.

“Working with this guy who is important to me and that I believe in and I’ll run through a wall for is something I had to think about and pray about,” Valai said. “It all came together.

“Seeing coach Venables at the airport and smiling and doing his little (makes GIF gesture from the plane), his energy was awesome. Seeing that was awesome because that’s him 24/7. The passion is real. What you see from him on the field, what you see in interviews, what you see in the locker room, what you see upstairs in his office is who he is.”

It’s been readily apparent in the two junior day events held by OU with Venables in charge. The one in January and the one last weekend have been paramount toward building the foundation to the 2023 class and beyond.

The relational message from Venables is ringing true even if the commitments aren’t all there just yet. For first-time visitors to campus to ones who have been there several times, again, it’s just different. The SOUL Mission of former players helping current ones and counseling them, you know, it’s an OU thing.

Coaches, recruits and even the players.

“I will tell you this, our players have never been so excited before,” Gundy said. “They have worked their butt off. We haven’t had to beg them to do it. They have been hungry. They have been starved. They have done a tremendous job.”

OU is striving to be the best. Aiming to hit a standard. And with Venables in charge, they’re taking a different pathway.

Different might have been exactly what OU needed.