On Saturday, the Oklahoma football team and the Texas Longhorns will clash in the 120th rendition of the Red River Rivalry. Entering the contest, the Oklahoma Sooners will spot a 4-1 record after pulling off a come-from-behind victory on the road against Auburn two weekends ago. Meanwhile, Texas sits atop the AP Poll Top 25, owning a blemish-free 5-0 record. From a head coaching standpoint, Sooners frontman Brent Venables will patrol the sideline for his third battle with Texas, while Longhorns bench boss Steve Sarkisian will enter his fourth year with the now SEC squad.
With much of college football’s media attention focused squarely on Dallas, Texas, this week, Sarkisian and Venables are no strangers to fielding questions regarding the impending matchup. On Wednesday, Sarkisian praised Venables for his performances with OU since he took the job in 2022.
Sarkisian Tips Cap to Oklahoma Football HC Brent Venables
According to Inside Texas via On3, Texas Longhorns leadman Steve Sarkisian is a big fan of his Saturday counterpart, Oklahoma football’s Brent Venables:
Ton of respect for Coach Venables. He’s been a great defensive coach for a long, long time at multiple stops,” Sarkisian said. “His defense definitely has a lot of personality to it. You know, there’s a lot of defense. They play hard. They play with amazing effort. You know, they’re very opportunistic. They create turnovers.
Sarkisian also emphasized the difficulty of preparing an offensive game plan against an Oklahoma football defense led by Brent Venables. As the co-defensive coordinator for the 2000 Oklahoma Sooners title team, Venables won the Broyles Award in 2016 while with the Clemson Tigers under the same job title, an honor given to the best assistant coach in the country. Clemson won two national championships while Venables served as the defensive play-caller.
In 2022, the first year of the Venables era in Oklahoma, the Sooners lost to Texas 49-0 while without the services of quarterback Dillon Gabriel. However, Oklahoma bounced back nicely last season with a dramatic 34-30 victory against the Longhorns. The Sooners have vastly improved on defense each season under their newest head coach, entering this week allowing just 16 points per game, their lowest mark since 2009.
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