Tuesday update: Holding pattern for Venables, Clemson

CAMPUS CORNER — Lots of questions today on my live chat about Brent Venables and what he’s going to do. Short answer is, I don’t know yet.

I spoke for a while with a friend of mine in Clemson, and it’s likely one of two prevailing theories during this holding pattern – and both would seem to indicate that Venables is Dabo Swinney‘s guy. (We get to that conclusion from the fact that Venables was the first to interview and visit Clemson’s campus, which happened this past weekend.)

Here are those theories …

1) Venables has an offer and is weighing it, giving Bob Stoops and OU time to talk with him about how responsibilities will be divvied and whether he’ll receive any sort of raise. In other words, the ball is in Venables’ court.

2) Swinney has a couple of interviews — serious, courtesy or something in between — left to do before offering Venables the job. That’s distinctly possible, too. Swinney, I’m told, has been out on the road recruiting yesterday and today. Could he had talked with candidates on the phone? Sure. But if he’s serious about them, I’m sure he’d like to give them the same red carpet, in-person treatment that Venables received.

Wild card: Maybe Venables knew K-State was coming open, and now that’s a factor in this. If nothing else, it could advance the Clemson timeline, if Dabo was  dawdling. If Venables still has any desire to be the head coach at his alma mater, perhaps this is the doorway. But that’s complicated, as you know, and Clemson might be the better job, anyway, because of money and how the program is situated in a winnable league. Then again, there’s the pull of the home state and alma mater.

Recruiting note: Running back David Smith of Midlothian, Ill., picked the Sooners over Big 12 rival (?!?) West Virginia a few minutes ago. Smith was in Norman last weekend, visiting with Bob Stoops and Cale Gundy. He’ll provide depth at a position that was suddenly lacking after the transfers of Jonathon Miller, Jermie Calhoun and Brandon Williams (and especially the latter).

What struck me about Smith was his size. He had the same build, roughly, as receiver Kameel Jackson. He’s 6-1, 190, something like that. Tall guy for running back — especially compared to the top three guys, Dom Whaley, Roy Finch and Brennan Clay. Well, I guess Whaley’s not that small (5-10), but over 6 foot is fairly uncommon for a back. He’s lanky.

= Trav

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Comments

30 years ago this entire Venables situation would have likely been kept quiet until a decision was made… Today, in the internet age, Trav has written like nine articles and only like three have actually had new information. Our quench for immediate answers results in the writing of columns theorizing what might be happenning. Lol. We could all save a lot of time and energy if we had any patience.

Demarco Murray is not short.

Murray not short but he also went about 205 to 210 on campus. OU needs some bigger backs. Tired of all the small guys. Instead of beating out West Virgina for RB’s, I’d rather be recruiting head to head against the likes of Alabama and LSU for real RB talent. Why does Stoops always have to have small quick RBs? And don’t mention Millard; he is a FB and not a primary ball carrier.

Millard would be used extensively by Alabama or LSU…that is where OU has missed the boat type casting players as “role”players like BB coaches do. Peterson and Murray were tall. Smith will put on some muscle and become a big strong back. I’ll take Whaley any day…even over Richarson.

We need BIG (not fat) tall athletic line,an on both sides of the ball!! That is the BUGGEST difference between OU and the SEC elites. I wouldn’t trade any of our “skill” players.

Millard would be used extensively by Alabama or LSU…that is where OU has missed the boat type casting players as “role”players like BB coaches do. Peterson and Murray were tall. Smith will put on some muscle and become a big strong back. I’ll take Whaley any day…even over Richarson.

We need BIG (not fat) tall athletic line,an on both sides of the ball!! That is the BUGGEST difference between OU and the SEC elites. I wouldn’t trade any of our “skill” players.

Millard would be used extensively by Alabama or LSU…that is where OU has missed the boat type casting players as “role”players like BB coaches do. Peterson and Murray were tall. Smith will put on some muscle and become a big strong back. I’ll take Whaley any day…even over Richarson.

We need BIG (not fat) tall athletic line,an on both sides of the ball!! That is the BUGGEST difference between OU and the SEC elites. I wouldn’t trade any of our “skill” players.

Why can’t we find ways to use ALL the talent we have on offense!!!!

Tim you are right we have not utilized Millard like we should have especially when Whaley was healthy!! Millard seem to run out of steam when we used him more and his number of carries tripled in the last few games. If used appropriately from the start of the season it would have been a win win situation and Whaley may have stayed healthy. Next year with Whaley, Bell and Millard we should have a strong running game. Now if Bob utilizes it is a whole another issue and I wouldn’t mortgage the house on it!! Smith is the same build and exact same height as Adrian Peterson was when he arrived at OU. Again the issue will be the handling of Smith. Will it be similar to the way they mishandled Finch??

Tim the reason we don’t use all of our talent is because our offense is one dimensional and makes it easy for D coordinators to predict what we are going to do offensively.
G the reason we go after these smaller flanker type backs is because it fits into what Bob thinks is his own brilliant designed offense in his mind. It runs up huge offensive yards but stalls out a far as putting TDs on the board. I wish Bob would swallow his pride and offensively go back to what made him Big Game Bob and run offensively what he ran when he first got to OU!! If Brent is still at Clemson on Wed. odds are pretty high he is not leaving. With Swinney on the road and not interviewing others it indicate that he feels strongly Brent is on board. With the teams in that conference placing recruiting defensively a top priority or at least much more of a balance than what OU has done the past 5 years is just what Brent is looking for. Brent fully understands if he can put together a solid defense at Clemson that the road to a top head coaching in the future is more likely to happen and much easier than at OU.

Think you are right about the ACC being an easier place to make your mark…next hot commodity is Mark Stoops….give him a couple more years with what FSU is recruiting. just think Swinney is to very stable and at some point he will do or say something stupid and have to leave….

Bet we know by Wednesday…..got to end this talk soon because of recruiting….

I’ve never seen so dam much drama over a football coach changing jobs. Move on. It’s life. Get a grip. If Bob is so hung up on Brent, get a look alike blowup doll to put in his office. These over-paid want-a-be jocks in the coaching profession change jobs all the time. Only thing we know for sure about BV is, according to stats and what we’ve seen on the field, he can’t generate a top 25 defense to compliment a top 10 offense. That’s unacceptable at OU if you want to be respected around the country.

This article states BV is waiting to see if he will get a raise? REALLY? If anything, I think take some pay away from him. We haven’t had a good defense for some time now. Time to make changes. We need to test our quarterbacks also. Landry may have some great stats, but he has faltered lately.

After coaching football for many years, mostly defensive backs and LBs i can tell you Judge first hand there is nothing more frustrating than an offense that leaves the defense on the field most of the game. Generally it runs up all kinds of total offense but does not equate to what is on the scoreboard. The head coach used to be an offensive coordinator and still is!! despite the guy up in the booth that appears to be calling formations and plays. You are scrambling for depth and trying to convert a running back that runs a 4.47 into a LB and smaller receivers into corners that the offense has over looked. How good or bad is BV?? It is hard to say at times he has looked brilliant and others it has appeared he couldn’t stop a leaky faucet. When not battling injuries and our offense is not not going three and out except for the three series that we scored in under 2 minutes BV has had a pretty salty defense. How many times has our defense just forced a punt and they are back on the field with their backs to the wall and have only given up a field goal??? Several!! Stats and numbers mean nothing and are misleading. How many points we give up and put on the board is the bottom line. If you want to compare numbers compare offensive scholarships to defensive scholarships. It will tell you allot about what BV has had to work with. He has always seemed to find LBs and DEs that people have overlooked and they have ended up playing Sunday after college because that is what he knows the best. Yet to field a top 10 defense at this level you need much more. How valuable is BV?? Well How important is it to have great LBS and DEs?? Is it worth another 300 grand. I would say so. Again Mike will tell you it is a much different situation now than before he left. What Mike can do that BV couldn’t do as well is voice the importance of recruiting a balanced roster and the amount of time the offense is leaving the defense on the field upfront to his brother. Too many things changed at the same time Mike left to really evaluate BV fairly. I hope he stays because along with Mike it is a win win situation. If BV goes to the ACC or the SEC and he is just average or less than average then we will know and Judge you would have been correct about BV but if he solid then he has been the scape goat for a limited offensive scheme.

why not ask the illustrious berry tramel, he shure gotta pretty moth when he says stuff

Brent helped us win the title too not just mike stoops, yah need to stop dissing coach V and show some support, thats whats wrong wit you fake ppl and your fake comments, lost in the smoke.

Smith I agree with you good fans support and stick with their team through the good and bad. OU Much like UT our fans expect much more than other teams fans on a year to year basis. We have been blessed, used to and expect this program to be in the hunt for a national title every year, which is impossible. The media has allot to do with that setting expectations way too high before the season has begun. Most schools would die for the success that OU had this year and we over look the positive and dwell on the negative too much. I myself have been guilty of that because I feel we beat ourselves because of confusion in crucial situations with this style of offense. This team has nothing to hang it’s head about. The OSU game was tough to swallow but OSU stayed healthy had more depth and by far were the better team at the end of the season. I felt bad for the OSU staff and players because they were good enough to play with Bama and may have been even better than the Bama. The biggest issue I have is no matter how bad the offense played when we lost the blame always fell with BV and the defense. The media always played up the total yards of offense and left out the fact we had to settle with field goals or turnovers instead of scoring. Losing or winning falls on the shoulders of both the offense and the defense. We forget the breaks won’t always fall our way and you don’t win every close game.

Yep, winning a football game has a lot in common with how the human body works….most of us get up every day not thinking about what our body has to do to get us through the most simple tasks. We don’t even think about what our mental and physical systems must to for us to do our daily routine until we get sick…the we see how one thing can affect so many of our mental and physical systems. A cold, vertigo, diabetes, etc. all are complicated.

We go to a football game at an elite school and expect to win…most can understand injuries to players…how that can impact production on one side of the ball. Some get it and see it affects both sides. get enough injuries and it is like a cancer…it ravages the whole team physically and mentally. The doctor cannot always cure the ailment. The coach cannot always punch the right button or call the right play. A lot of what happened on D this year, was not BV’s fault, but like the doctor who fails at curing the patient, many hold him accountable.

A string of injuries and youth combined to form the perfect storm…I just hope BV knows that OU is not the only place that can happen…those things are outside the coaches control and can bring on the heat of fans and the school administration. Most OU fans like and. Respect BV…just ask former players…they too like and respect him. Too bad he is the patient that had to pay the ultimate price.

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