Clemson’s Brent Venables confirms it: He’s talked with Texas Tech
Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables has been linked to the head coaching job at Texas Tech after Kliff Kingsbury was fired Sunday.
Venables has a close relationship with Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt, who was a teammate with Venables at Kansas State.
A report surfaced Monday morning from the Austin American-Statesman stating that Hocutt “has talked” with Venables. Venables confirmed the report early Monday afternoon..
“Kirby and I, as everybody knows, were college teammates and fellow linebackers,” Venables said. “We’re very, very good friends. I’ve talked to Kirby a lot, and I’ve talked to him recently. But that’s all I’ll say.”
After pausing for a few seconds, Venables did elaborate on his current job and what it means to him. He also pointed out that his son, Jake Venables, is redshirting for the Tigers this season.
“I’ve got a great job. I’ve got great loyalty and appreciation for the people that are responsible for me being here, the players, coach (Dabo) Swinney, Dan Radakovich, our administration, our fellow coaches. I would never compromise the integrity of my job for other opportunities. Ever,” Venables said. “That’s not who I am. Just so people understand where I’m at right now, my son Jake is here and he’s chasing a dream. I sold this dream to him. My responsibility as a dad is to support it as long as he wants to chase his dreams. Who am I to be a hypocrite, regardless of what opportunities are out there? That’s how I look at it.”
Venables also addressed job speculation in general and how he deals with it each year, emphasizing that he does not let any outside interest effect the job he currently has.
“I’ve never tried to leverage one situation for another. Ever. I would never try to prostitute myself. If I’m worthy of something, then let the powers at be decide. You want to be valued. You want to be appreciated. To me, I get more out of that than anything, and to me, I have it all here at Clemson,” Venables said. “The success of our players, our team, our offense, coach Swinney, the leadership, the byproduct of that is success for all of us. And so that’s part of the profession that we live in. Managing it is pretty simple to me. You do have representation that handles a lot of stuff, and you give them guidance about how to handle certain things. But I’ve always had a ‘be here now mentality’ and never tried to have multiple hats in the ring.”
Venables isn’t the only Clemson assistant who has been mentioned as a possible head coaching candidate as co-offensive coordinators Jeff Scott and Tonly Elliott have also had their names come up.
Elliott addressed the speculation on Monday.
“Man, to be honest, I don’t know and I really haven’t thought about it. I kind of hate this time of year from the standpoint of I have an unbelievable group of (players) that have been extremely committed to this program. And I don’t want to be a distraction in any sense of the matter to those guys,” Elliott said. “As I’ve said before, that’s the Lord’s plan, the Lord’s timing, and all of that stuff will have its place. But right now, we are in the midst of a championship run and my focus is on Clemson, and I owe that to this program, coach Swinney, the staff, players that they get my best.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2018 at 12:46 PM.