Brent Venables weighs in on the college game and sounds great doing it

Sooner coach had his say after Friday practice in preparation for Alamo Bowl

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables and the Sooners celebrate a victory during his first season as Sooner head coach. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Speaking to media after practice Friday, Brent Venables sounded great. 

He always sounds great.

The ways he explains how he looks at things; the things he says the program stands for, much of it venturing beyond the game; the way he believes doing things the right way, holistically and consistently, is bound to overcome the difficulties and inequities of modern college football, is righteous and contagious.

“My job is to make sure everybody’s bringing value. My job is to bring in the most competitive roster that I can,” Venables said. “I tell the starters, the scholarship players, the guys that play, my job is to find somebody better than you and your job is to compete with them. 

“When you leave Oklahoma and you’re in the workplace, you’re in a locker room in the NFL, it’s going to be the same thing. Actually, it gets even harder.”

See what I mean?

Also, given the return of Danny Stutsman, Billy Bowman, Ethan Downs and others, the Sooner defense ought to take another step. And now that Jeff Lebby’s taken over at Mississippi State and Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley have been elevated, the Sooner offense should make sense in the most crucial moments, too.

If only those things happen, Oklahoma should be ahead of the curve as it takes on a really good Arizona team at the Alamo Bowl Dec. 28 and, more importantly, next season when it finally enters the SEC.

Venables, though, would like an even playing field, not to mention a change or two that simply must come to the college game.

He sounded great talking about that, as well, and the question that took him there was terrific, from Norman Transcript alumnus Berry Tramel: should college football consider one-, two-, three- and four-year players’ contracts?

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