April 25, 2023
A former 13-year University of Oklahoma assistant coach who won a national championship with the Sooners and two more with Clemson University during a highly successful 10-year stint as defensive coordinator, Brent Venables has been named OU’s 23rd head football coach.
Venables served as co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Oklahoma from 1999-2003 and as associate head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach from 2004-11 under former head coach Bob Stoops. Venables has coached in eight national championship games between his time at OU and Clemson, winning titles with the Sooners in 2000 and Tigers in 2016 and 2018. In 26 years as a full-time assistant coach, Venables’ teams have 26 winning seasons, won 13 conference titles, have been to 30 bowl games (includes four College Football Playoff National Championship games) and won at least 10 games 21 times.
Venables has received national accolades for his coaching and recruiting. He received the Frank Broyles Award in 2016 as the nation’s top assistant coach after being named a finalist in 2015. He was named FootballScoop’s Defensive Coordinator of the Year in 2014 and Rivals.com’s Recruiter of the Year in 2015.
Prior to joining Stoops’ first staff at Oklahoma, Venables coached linebackers at Kansas State (1996-98), holding the title of defensive running game coordinator in 1998, and served as a graduate assistant at K-State under Bill Snyder from 1993-95.
As a player at Kansas State (1991-92), Venables earned honorable mention All-Big Eight honors in 1992 after registering 124 tackles. He began his collegiate playing career at Garden City (Kan.) Community College (1989-90), where he earned All-America honors after recording 276 tackles.
A native of Salina, Kan., Venables received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Kansas State in 1992. He and his wife Julie have four children: sons Jake and Tyler and daughters Delaney and Addison.
Chair of the Day
Frank Keating was appointed to the Regents by Gov. Mary Fallin in 2017. He was formerly the president and CEO of the American Bankers Association and, prior to that, was president and CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers. His years in the private sector were preceded by three decades of law enforcement and public service, culminating in two terms as Oklahoma’s 25th governor. Over the course of 30 years, Keating also served as an FBI agent, U.S. Attorney, state prosecutor, and Oklahoma House and Senate member, including service as the Republican Senate leader. He also served Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in the Treasury, Justice, and Housing departments. In 1993, Keating returned to Oklahoma to successfully run for governor and was re-elected in 1998. As governor at the time of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City, he helped raise more than $6 million in scholarships for the nearly 200 children left with only one or no parents. Keating has served as a member of numerous boards, including the National Archives and the Jamestown Foundation, and was chairman of the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Advisory Board of Washington’s Mt. Vernon. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and his law degree from OU.