Brent Venables
Brent Venables went 35–23 as a head coach, 2022–2026, at Oklahoma. Wikipedia’s season articles record one season differently (2026, 3–2); by them his record is 35–22. Share
- Record
- 35–23 career
- Seasons
- 5
- Schools
- 1
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Dec 18, 1970
- Best season
- 2025 10–3, No. 13
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Oklahoma | 6–7 | T–7th | Cheez-It Bowl L | ||
| 2023 | Oklahoma | 10–3 | T–2nd | Alamo Bowl L | 15 | |
| 2024 | Oklahoma | 6–7 | T–13th | Armed Forces Bowl L | ||
| 2025 | Oklahoma | 10–3 | T–5th | CFP First Round L | 13 | |
| 2026 | Oklahoma | 3–3 (Wikipedia: 3–2) |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
Players he coached
Tyler GuytonNo. 29 pick, 2024- Anton HarrisonNo. 27 pick, 2023
- Tate Sandell2025 Lou Groza Award
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, free licenses; credits on each player’s page.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 19 | 10–9 | 53% |
| Against top-10 teams | 8 | 4–4 | 50% |
| Against rivals | 11 | 5–6 | 45% |
| Conference games | 37 | 19–18 | 51% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 4 | 0–4 | 0% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 23 | 11–12 | 48% |
| At home | 30 | 23–7 | 77% |
| On the road | 20 | 10–10 | 50% |
| At neutral sites | 8 | 2–6 | 25% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 39 | 26–13 | 67% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 19 | 9–10 | 47% |
His own 58 games on file, 2022–2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steve Sarkisian 2022–2026 | 2–3 | Texas | 5 | |
| Kalen DeBoer 2024–2025 | 2–1 | Alabama | 3 |
Brent Venables’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Texasseries | 5 | 2–3 |
| Alabamaseries | 3 | 2–1 |
| Auburnseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Iowa Stateseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Templeseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Kent Stateseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| UTEPseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| LSUseries | 2 | 1–1 |
National coaching awards
The awards- 2016 Clemson: Broyles Award
National title staffs
Every title staff- Won a national title on Oklahoma’s 2000 staff (co-defensive coordinator, linebackers) · the staff · source
- Won a national title on Clemson’s 2016 staff (defensive coordinator, linebackers) · the staff · source
- Won a national title on Clemson’s 2018 staff (associate head coach, defensive coordinator, linebackers) · the staff · source
The champions’ staffs from 1990 on, as the schools listed them that season: Staff lists: Drew Hoover’s how-many-rings (MIT), from the schools’ media guides and staff pages. Roles as the source words them.
How he was hired
- Hired by Oklahoma for the 2022 season from Clemson, where he was defensive coordinator. He had a prior connection to the school.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993–95 | Kansas State | Graduate assistant | |
| 1996–98 | Kansas State | Linebackers coach | |
| 1999–2003 | Oklahoma | Co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2004–11 | Oklahoma | Assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2012–17 | Clemson | Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2018–21 | Clemson | Assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2022–present | Oklahoma | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Bill SnyderKansas State
- Bob StoopsOklahoma
- Dabo SwinneyClemson
Assistants who became head coaches
- Brandon HallTroy
- Jeff LebbyMississippi State
- Matt WellsUtah State, Texas Tech
- Ted RoofDuke
- Seth LittrellNorth Texas
- Kevin WilsonIndiana, Tulsa
- Nate DreilingUtah State
Worked under (3)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bill Snyder | Kansas State | 1993–98 | 1993–95: graduate assistant; 1996–98: linebackers coach | |
| Bob Stoops | Oklahoma | 1999–2011 | 1999–2003: co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach; 2004–11: assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Dabo Swinney | Clemson | 2012–21 | 2012–17: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach; 2018–21: assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach |
Coached under him, later head coaches (7)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brandon Hall | Oklahoma, 2022–26: safeties coach | Troy | |
| Jeff Lebby | Oklahoma, 2022–23: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Mississippi State | |
| Matt Wells | Oklahoma, 2022–23: offensive assistant | Utah State, Texas Tech | |
| Ted Roof | Oklahoma, 2022–23: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | Duke | |
| Seth Littrell | Oklahoma, 2023: offensive assistant; 2024: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | North Texas | |
| Kevin Wilson | Oklahoma, 2025–26: offensive assistant | Indiana, Tulsa | |
| Nate Dreiling | Oklahoma, 2025–26: inside linebackers coach | Utah State |
Other assistants under him (9)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Bill Bedenbaugh | Oklahoma, 2022–26: offensive line coach | |
| Cale Gundy | Oklahoma, 2022: wide receivers coach | |
| Jay Valai | Oklahoma, 2022–25: co-defensive coordinator | |
| Joe Jon Finley | Oklahoma, 2022–23, 2025: tight ends coach; 2024: co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach; 2024: offensive coordinator and tight ends coach | |
| Todd Bates | Oklahoma, 2022–26: co-defensive coordinator and defensive tackles coach | |
| Kevin Johns | Oklahoma, 2024: offensive assistant; 2024: interim co-OC and quarterbacks coach | |
| Zac Alley | Oklahoma, 2024: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Ben Arbuckle | Oklahoma, 2025–26: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Wes Goodwin | Oklahoma, 2025–26: assistant linebackers and outside linebackers coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Clemson | defensive coordinatorbonuses up to $295,000 | $1,700,000 USA Today | |
| 2016 | Clemson | defensive coordinatorbonuses up to $95,000 | $1,431,250 USA Today | |
| 2015 | Clemson | defensive coordinatorbonuses up to $95,000 | $1,406,107 USA Today | |
| 2014 | Clemson | defensive coordinatorbonuses up to $95,000 | $875,000 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Venables’s teams went for it on 21% of fourth downs and on 42% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 49% of plays and took 24.0 seconds a play, 2022–2026.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 12 g | 26 of 105 25% | 42% | 45% | 20.6 | +0.10 | |
| 2023 13 g | 17 of 79 22% | 50% | 49% | 22.4 | +0.21 | |
| 2024 12 g | 26 of 99 26% | 44% | 46% | 25.2 | −0.08 | |
| 2025 13 g | 14 of 101 14% | 42% | 54% | 25.9 | −0.03 | |
| 2026 6 g | 7 of 46 15% | 24% | 52% | 27.9 | −0.10 | |
| All 56 g | 90 of 430 21% | 42% | 49% | 24.0 | +0.03 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.