Clemson’s Venables, Oklahoma’s Riley two of the best in the game

Clemson’s Brent Venables and Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley are two rising stars in the coaching world.

They use different methods, but have been successful in becoming two of the top coordinators in college football.

Whether he is talking to the media, directing a practice or coaching in a game, Venables’ intensity always shines through. Despite being in his mid 40s, he serves as the scout team quarterback for Clemson.

“He likes overseeing everything. He’s done it all year,” linebacker Ben Boulware said Tuesday at Orange Bowl Media Day. “He likes having control of everything, which I understand that because he wants everything to be perfect.”

Venables’ arm leaves much to be desired, and he’s not the most elusive runner, but his players understand they better bring it every play, because their coach is watching intently.

“I think it says a lot about his demeanor and how he goes about taking care of his business,” Tigers safety T.J. Green said. “He goes in there and makes sure that we’re making the right reads and he’s making the same decisions that Baker Mayfield would probably make. He knows the offense a lot better than anybody because he’s the defensive coordinator.”

Clemson star defensive end Shaq Lawson might have gone overboard recently when he knocked his coach to the ground when Venables was rolling out.

“He's very competitive when he does that scout team quarterback,” Lawson said. “I didn't intend to hit him, but I actually did hit him hard, and he got up and shook it off like he went hard, and he didn't have no pads on, so it was crazy… I was like, man, I hope I didn’t kill my coach.”

He didn’t kill his coach, and Venables was glad to see Lawson make the play.

“I loved it,” Venables said. “That’s what I wanted.”

Riley doesn’t play safety for Oklahoma’s scout team, but Sooners players say his addition is a big reason why Oklahoma is averaging 10 points more per game in Riley’s first year as offensive coordinator.

“He’s the best coordinator I’ve ever been a part of and been able to play under,” Oklahoma star receiver Sterling Shepard said. “His energy level, he should write people speeches.”

Riley is only 32 years old, but had no problem selling himself to Oklahoma players. Mayfield said it didn’t take much time to buy into Riley’s system.

“The first meeting we had was about how he’s going to hold us to a high standard,” Mayfield said. “It was kind of a wakeup call, ‘OK, this is how he’s going to hold us, and this is what we should expect.’ We were normalized to that pretty early on.”

Riley, who had previous coaching stops at Texas Tech and East Carolina, admitted with a laugh that he is surprised he is the offensive coordinator at one of the top programs in the country at such a young age.

He attributes his success to being around good people, good coaches and being lucky, but Shepard said there is a lot more to Riley’s success than being fortunate.

“The tempo of it, concepts, the mixture between running the ball and throwing the ball, it’s even. A coordinator has to be able to know when to call stuff and when not to, and it seems like he’s spot on with that every time,” Shepard said. “Off the field, he’s a regular, cool, loving guy. He brings us over to the house all the time, or we were playing Putt-Putt the other day in his back yard. He’s just a cool guy.”

Venables, who coached at Oklahoma before coming to Clemson, has been pretty much the same person and coach since taking over the Tigers’ defense in 2012, according to Clemson players.

But if there is one difference. They say he takes more risks now and trusts that his players will make it pay off.

“He always says there’s no perfect calls. He’ll take some risks and get after it. Our offensive line doesn’t even know where we’re coming from in practice sometimes because we send guys from everywhere,” defensive tackle D.J. Reader said. “It’s really a testament to us and that we’ve shown him that he can have confidence in us. It’s really good and comfortable to play for someone who has confidence in you like that.”

Riley and his Oklahoma offense, which is ranked No. 6 in the country, will take some chances as well.

Clemson’s secondary is considered to be one of the best in the country with Mackensie Alexander, Cordrea Tankersley, Green and Jayron Kearse, but Riley said he is confident in his offensive playmakers.

“We’re going to run our offense. We don’t usually get too keyed in on personnel,” he said. “Our deal is more on us trying to focus running out things and hopefully that’ll be good for us.”

This story was originally published December 29, 2015 at 8:35 PM with the headline "Clemson’s Venables, Oklahoma’s Riley two of the best in the game."