Brent Venables

A former 13-year University of Oklahoma assistant coach who won a national championship with the Sooners and two more with Clemson University during an ultra-successful 10-year stint as defensive coordinator, Brent Venables was named OU's 23rd head football coach Dec. 5, 2021.

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 produced 26 winning seasons, won 13 conference titles, went to 30 bowl games (includes four College Football Playoff National Championship games) and won at least 10 games 22 times.

Since 2000, Venables has coached eight national award winners and 16 consensus All-Americans. In that time, 57 defensive players under his guidance have been selected in the NFL Draft (12 first-rounders), including 15 linebackers, two of whom were first-round picks.

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.

Oklahoma linebackers under Venables earned three Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year awards, five Big 12 Defensive Newcomer of the Year accolades and six first-team All-America honors. Ten of his OU linebackers — and 31 defensive players overall — were taken in the 2000-12 NFL Drafts.

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 and was inducted into the school's athletics hall of fame in April 2023.

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 Laney and Addie.