Brent Venables pulled out all the stops after his team lost to Ole Miss to get them to where they’re at right now
Brent Venables and the Sooners have won every game since losing to Ole Miss.
Brent Venables, the Oklahoma Sooners head coach, is not the type of guy to look too far ahead at what’s in front of him and his team. He’s very good at staying in the moment and keeping his team there. That’s what he’s preached to he media every single week, that is, up until this week. After the win over the LSU Tigers, Venables admitted that at one point he had gotten ahead of himself, but the team needed it.
“We talked five weeks ago after losing to Ole Miss,” Venables told reporters. “You know, obviously they weren’t in a very positive mood. The guys came in, and it’s really quiet, and kind of a circle the wagon moment. Just trying to instill confidence in who we are. We lost a football game to a really good football team. I’m not really one to put the cart before the horse, but I put a big graphic on the screen that had an ESPN playoff simulator, or whatever, percentages if the Sooners go 4-0 in their last four regular season games, what the chances are. It was like 92%. I’m not really like that, but I think our guys needed a shot in the arm and a vision for what’s in front of us if we just put our heads down.”
Sooners needed that confidence boost after loss to Ole Miss
In a way, you can thank the ESPN playoff simulator for this team rallying around themselves after that loss to the Ole Miss Rebels. And, really, that game could have gone either way. On that particular day, the Rebels were the better team, but man, not by much. Just to think that this team could only have one loss right now is crazy, considering where they were last season. But they handled the loss well and moved on to their last four games.
Oklahoma didn’t just win those last four games, either. They proved everyone wrong. No one had them beating the Tennessee Volunteers in Tennessee. And definitely no one had them beating the Alabama Crimson Tide in Alabama. That’s back-to-back road games with a total of 200 thousand fans yelling at you and cheering against you. That’s not easy to do.
As Venables said, this team put their heads down, and they went right back to work.
That was a great decision by Venables. As he said, he’s not one to do that, and he was asked about the playoff chances around then. Of course, he used coach-speak and said they didn’t pay attention to it, but they definitely did after losing to Ole Miss. They knew what was ahead of them if they stuck to their guns. This is one of the many examples that show why Venables has continued to prove he is the guy for the Sooners.
Many fans wanted Venables out. Many doubted him. Now, he has a spot in the College Football Playoff waiting for him.
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