NORMAN — The pictures in Brent Venables’ office tell the story of the last 13 years. There’s one of former Oklahoma Butkus Award winners Rocky Calmus and Teddy Lehman in a celebratory embrace. There’s another blown up on the wall after one the Sooners’ seven Big 12 championships.
There are several more. All of them elicited special memories, and all of them were about to be packed away. Venables couldn’t help but think about the images on the wall and thousands more churning through his mind Thursday afternoon.
“It’s been tough,” he said while boxing up game balls and trinkets from his years on OU’s defensive staff.
Venables knew it would be after accepting the offer to become Clemson’s defensive coordinator Wednesday night. It meant saying good-bye to the program he helped resurrect, where he blossomed as a coach, and the town where all four of his children were born.
So, there he was at the Switzer Center packing away a large chunk of his professional life before hopping a flight to Clemson, S.C., Thursday night.
Why did it come it to this?
Venables admitted the choice he made came after three days of gut-wrenching deliberation. He’s adamant that he hadn’t been throwing around resumes, hoping to get a call back.
He shot down an offer to become West Virginia’s defensive coordinator last week. He said one of the main reasons he had no interest was that he didn’t want to compete against OU on an annual basis.
Clemson, however, offered something different. It’s what led him and his wife, Julie, to visit the school last weekend. The Sooners don’t butt heads with ACC schools often on the field or on the recruiting trail. It was an opportunity that intrigued him.
But it didn’t keep the last three days from becoming a gut-wrenching period.
It was never a matter of money for Venables. Clemson is going to pay him $800,000 a year. It’s nearly double the $440,000 he made this past season. But according to Venables, OU was willing to match the offer.
It wasn’t a matter of losing power after Mike Stoops was hired as co-defensive coordinator last week. Venables said he was going to retain play-calling duty for next season.
“We had already discussed how all that was going to work,” he said. “I was on board with it.”
Even by Wednesday afternoon, he didn’t have a final decision, and he changed his mind on it initially. Venables told OU coach Bob Stoops he was going to stay earlier in the day.
What ultimately tipped Venables’ decision was the chance to advance his career. Clemson offered an opportunity to run his defense, his way. It’s something every coordinator has to prove he can do before he can become a head coach.
He would no longer be a protégé of Bob Stoops. The Tigers will run the Venables defense next season. It was the one thing the Sooners couldn’t match.
In terms of his career, it was the leap he had to take.
Didn’t make Thursday’s office trip any easier.
A “brief” chat with a couple OU beat writers lasted 30 minutes. Venables’ cell phone didn’t go more than three minutes without ringing or vibrating during that period. Most of OU’s coaching staff was out recruiting, but there were a lot of friends and support staff that wanted to wish him well before he headed out of town.
It’s why he was boxing up all those little trinkets from the last 13 years Thursday afternoon.
“I’m gonna miss this place,” he said.
It was obvious “this place” was going to miss him, too.
John Shinn 366-3536 jshinn@normantranscript.com
