Four of his five Oklahoma defenses finished seventh or better nationally in scoring defense and in the top 10 for total defense. Eighteen of the 42 defensive touchdowns (43 percent) in the Bob Stoops’ era came from a defense coached by Mike Stoops.

Has coached 25 NFL Draft Picks while players under his direction have combined for 11 national awards, 12 All-American honors, 29 All-Conference honors and 30 Academic All-Conference honors.

He is the the only coach to have an athlete win both the Nagurski Award (best defensive player) and the Thorpe Award (best defensive back) in the same season and has done so twice with Roy Williams (2001) and Derrick Strait (2003).

Questionable at best? riiiiiiiiiiight….

You don’t uproot your family and move 1000 miles across country for what would be considered a “lateral” move at best. Venables wanted to run the show.” ”

First, Jeff stated, “OU is obviously not far superior to Clemson.” That was the reason I replied to that in the first place.

Secondly I am glad you realize, or at least at a minimum, cannot deny the fact that like any other coach it is a lilypad situation.

What you alluded to was the fact that I failed to mention the specifics of why it is a career move. The reason for the career move is that he needs to call the shots by himself in order for his career path to be more relevent. In the words of Berry Tramel “Professionally, Venables needed to move on. Needed to make a name for himself elsewhere, because his name had taken a hit in Norman.”

Venables apexed in Norman, and whether people like it or not, this is a career move.

Every coordinator is using the school they work as a lilypad to jump to a head coaching job, if they have aspirations to be a head coach. Do you think Nick Saban or Urban Meyer were sweating and wringing their hands over the potential departures of their coordinators? No. Why? Because talented coaches flock to places where they can pad their resume. Dan Mullen at Miss State. Gus Malzahn at Arkansas State. Jim McElwain at Colorado State.

These guys all “used” their employers as a lilypad to jump to a head coaching job. That’s advancement in college football. I wouldn’t act like OU is some special snowflake in the world of college football, because it isn’t. It may be a superior program than Clemson; I won’t argue for or against that. But, you’re kidding yourself if you think Venables left OU purely because it was a good career move.

You don’t uproot your family and move 1000 miles across country for what would be considered a “lateral” move at best. Venables wanted to run the show.

http://newsok.com/brent-venables-best-career-move-might-be-leaving-sooners/article/3639837

This is not about Oklahoma vs. Clemson, this is about Brent Venables and his future. He wants to be a head coach some day.

Clemson will be better with an OU defensive coordinator.

How many BCS Bowl games has Clemson played in? How many times have they been ranked in the top 10 over the last 10 years?

Of course Venables is going to say nothing but great things about Clemson, that is his next employer before moving on to bigger and better things afterwards.

He hated leaving Oklahoma, and rightfully so, but he has to do what is best for his future career. He wants to be a head coach some day, and this is an opportunity for him to get out of his comfort zone and make his name known from a football program that is not like Oklahoma.