This former OU player heaps praise on Brent Venables’ impacts from time with Sooners
As a player at Oklahoma in the early 2000s, former linebacker Teddy Lehman would spend hours in Brent Venables’ office watching film.
Sometimes, he’d lay on the floor, going over play after play. Venables, then the Sooners’ co-defensive coordinator and linebacker coach, would be working on other things.
It was in those one-on-one moments that the two got to know each other better and Lehman’s knowledge of football expanded. He was a small-town Oklahoma kid who was adjusting to what Venables was asking of him, which wasn’t always easy.
“Maybe everyone felt like this, but I felt like he was harder on me than he was on anyone else, basically made my life miserable,” admitted Lehman, who’s now the radio color analyst for OU football. “The way I explain it to everyone is, it was always just a little bit better every day. I hated life, but I showed up and every day was just a little bit better. Finally after two years, I finally had my head above water and could swim a little bit. Once I started to be able to play the game at the level he expected and turn into the player he wanted, that’s whenever our relationship really started to grow.”
He called Venables demanding but fair, and was thankful for how much he grew as a football player. By the time he left Oklahoma, the linebacker was a national champion, a two-time All-American and Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in addition to winning the Butkus and Chuck Bednarik awards before being a second-round pick in the 2004 NFL Draft.
“The standard was extremely high,” Lehman said. “It was almost unattainably high, but it’s the reason I turned into the player I did, is because of the way that (Venables) coached me.”
Almost 20 years later, Venables is the defensive coordinator at Clemson and has been one of the most talked-about names for replacing Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma since Riley departed for the University of Southern California on Sunday.
Coming back to Norman?
Former Sooners defensive backs Tony Jefferson and Aaron Colvin gave a public vote of approval for Venables to be OU’s next head coach. Lehman said he would love that potential move, noting how Venables has learned under three quality head coaches in Bill Snyder, who he also played for at Kansas State, Bob Stoops at Oklahoma and now Dabo Swinney at Clemson for the last 10 years.
“I think that championship pedigree is important and obviously he had a huge hand in championships at two different programs,” Lehman said of Venables’ titles with the Sooners (2000) and the Tigers (2016, 2018). “I think that’s huge. The other thing is I know how important the strength and conditioning program is to coach Venables, and I’m a firm believer in the fact that you win championships in the strength and conditioning program. I think he shares that belief.”
During his time with the Sooners, Venables coached a total of five Big 12 defensive players of the year, five conference newcomers of the year and three Butkus Award winners, including Lehman. Venables’ Sooner defenses ranked in the top five in scoring, total defense and pass efficiency in 2001. Two years later, which was Lehman’s senior year, the unit led the nation in total defense and pass defense while also ranking second in pass efficiency defense, third in scoring defense and fifth in the turnover margin.
Leaving for Clemson
Venables’ departure from Oklahoma in 2011 wasn’t under bad terms, but it wasn’t ideal, either.
Following that season, the Sooners’ defense finished 55th nationally. Stoops brought in his brother, Mike, to be the co-defensive coordinator along with Venables. Fans also became restless with a perceived defensive slide. Going back and forth between leaving and staying, Venables finally decided he’d move on to Clemson.
Since then, he’s won two more national championships, six ACC championships and coached another Butkus Award winner in Isaiah Simmons, with his 2018 group setting a school record for quarterback sacks with 54, among other accomplishments.
This season at Clemson, Venables’ defensive unit has allowed only 15 points and 308.4 yards per game, which both rank first in the ACC. Nationally, the Tigers are second in red zone defense, allowing 18 scores in 29 attempts, and scoring defense; tied with Miami for 10th in tackles for loss (89); tied with Georgia for fifth in quarterback sacks (41); and ninth in total defense and rushing defense (98.8 yards per game).
“What kind of sets him apart, in my experience, was a lot of coaches coach their players on what they’re supposed to do,” Lehman explained. “He was excellent at coaching you on what you’re supposed to do but also why you’re doing it and why it fits into the framework of how you’re defending a team and how it fits into your defense philosophically and what the overall goal is, expanding on more than just your role.
“Expanding to the why of why they’re asking you to do these things in a different call or different formation or however that may go. He was way more about the ‘why,’ not just the X’s and O’s of it.”
What’s next
During a press conference at Oklahoma on Monday, Sooners director of athletics Joe Castiglione said the Sooners will move quickly in the process and have already drawn interest in the job. He added he “absolutely” has a list and has already “engaged in the process to review those people that I had identified.”
“The type of coach that we’re looking for is the type of coach like coach Stoops,” Castiglione continued, “the type of coach like Lincoln Riley, the type of coaches that we’ve hired in our program that possess the competency, the confidence, the character, the ability to develop the chemistry in a program and have a clear vision for how they’re going to put this program in a position to constantly compete for championships.”
Back in Clemson, Tigers cornerback Mario Goodrich isn’t worried about the latest buzz on Venables because of how frequently it happens. Additionally, a photo of Venables and Swinney was posted to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon of the two at Hays High School in Kansas with Class of 2022 commit Jaren Kanak.
“Speculations come up every year about coach V,” Goodrich said during an appearance on ACC Network’s “Packer and Durham” show Tuesday morning. “I feel like this is his home. He’s worried about recruiting right now. He’s trying to bring the next best in.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 4:28 PM.
