COLUMN: Venables on staff retention, culture

DALLAS — Oklahoma coach Brent Venables had a few nervous moments in the offseason.

Perhaps none as nervous as when Ohio State tried to hire running backs coach DeMarco Murray.

“That’s the one that y’all know of,” Venables said Tuesday when I asked him to recount the events that almost led one of the program’s most decorated players to Columbus. “And there’s been plenty more.”

Murray was a Sooner, is a Sooner, and apparently will remain a Sooner as long as Venables will have him — that is, as long as he continues to recruit running backs at an elite level and coach them up in Norman.

“DeMarco has been in high demand,” Venables said in a small-group interview at SEC Media Days.

So Murray got a nice raise, from $500,000 a year to $575,000, and received a contract extension through 2026.

When asked about the effort to retain Murray, Venables offered a sideways explanation for why OU assistants seem to get raises and extension every year.

“I got a whole staff of that happening,” Venables said. “ … There were several this year. Several. It’s the NFL, it’s other college teams, and people just, they’re gonna — they don’t know if you’re gonna say yes unless you ask.”

Venables said he’s run out of fingers trying to count the OU assistants who’ve had job offers.

“More than one hand,” he said, “where — this season alone.”

He said some of his staff don’t even bother to tell him they’re being courted elsewhere.

 “We’ve had several coaches that have been approached,” he said, “and they didn’t even come to me and say, you know, ‘Hey, Coach, I got this opportunity.’ You know? Because they know I might blow him up like, ‘Man, why would you even think about that? That’d be the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.’ ” 

Venables was laughing when he delivered that last line, but he was also dead serious.

“I have that to me, that kind of cactus mindset, you know — heavy sun, no water; that’s what should be for everybody,” he admits. 

There aren’t many factors more important to building and sustaining a program than consistency on the coaching staff. Just ask Bob Stoops. Stoops had some a little early turnover, but his staff settled quickly and stayed static for the long haul. It was when he started consistently losing coordinators — Mark Mangino, Chuck Long, Mike Stoops, Kevin Wilson — that winning started to get harder.

So Venables — a key member of those Stoops staffs for 12 years and a vital element of Dabo Swinney’s dynastic tenure at Clemson for a decade — understands inherently how important retaining a staff can be.

“I’m very thankful,” Venables said. “Got an amazingly talented staff. That’s what I’m most proud of, is they have an appreciation for what Oklahoma is all about.”

Establishing a lasting culture at Oklahoma — additive to what Stoops built, beyond what Lincoln Riley had — has become one of Venables top priorities as he heads into his third season.

“There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious and there’s nothing wrong with maybe wanting to create a little more value for yourself and maximizing your value in that space,” Venables said. “I’m appreciative of our administration for being aggressive and responding every step of the way. 

“Since I’ve been here, in a very short amount of time, Joe Castiglione and President Harroz have given us everything we need to retain our guys and put them at the market value that they deserve. As leaders, they recognize that’s the cost of doing business.”

Venables had to replace his defensive coordinator and linebackers coach this year, with Zac Alley stepping in for Ted Roof. He promoted Seth Littrell to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach after Jeff Lebby became Mississippi State’s head coach. And he hired Doug Deakin to step in as special teams analyst when Jay Nunez took a coaching job at Alabama.

That’s a pretty good amount of turnover for one year. But among position coaches, everyone else is back in 2024, and Venables couldn’t be happier.

“I value people,” he said. “It’s a people business. More important than your acumen is finding great people that will align with your beliefs, your values, and you’ve got to be talented, too.”