Ahead of Tennessee football's trip to Norman to face Oklahoma, Sooners head coach Brent Venables met with the media.

Here's everything he had to say about the game courtesy of OUInsder.com.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Good afternoon. Got to work yesterday. Put last week's game to bed. Started on Tennessee yesterday afternoon. The guys had a great night of practice. Before I get started, I'd like to congratulate R Mason Thomas for being named the Bronko Nagurski national player of the week. It's been a long time coming for him as well, just from an injury standpoint. It's good to see him get started just from an injury standpoint and good to see him get started off to a good start this season. I'd also like to recognize Deion Burks. He's got 22 catches through three games, which is the most ever in a start for a first-time starter for us. That's in pretty good company when you look at the rest of the guys on that list. And then, it caught a little bit of news last night, Owen Heinecke being awarded - not by myself - but the walk-ons chose to basically pay for his school this year.

It was a really cool moment and for them to match Danny's gift of $50,000 to several walk-ons in a pretty cool thing. I know that is certainly appreciated by those freshmen.We're excited to start conference play, our first-ever SEC game. It's pretty cool to be part of that history. It's hard to argue that anyone in college football is playing better ball than Tennessee right now, led by their freshman quarterback Nico - I going to try to pronounce it (Brent tries) probably pretty close and I butchered it some but man what a talent. You know, he was named the Citrus Bowl MVP in his first start against the University of Iowa last year and he's fun to watch. He's incredibly talented, strong arm, great runner. The things he's been able to do in a short amount of time. He's completed 72% of his passes and he's just been fantastic. He's got a great presence to him, he's got a great supporting cast and a great defense.

They've outscored their opponents 191-13, which is the biggest differential in SEC history through a team's first three games. They lead the nation in scoring and ranked second in total offense. They've got great balance. They're averaging over 300 yards rushing and 300 yards passing and then their defense is just outstanding and total defense, I think is first or second in the country, total defense is just 160 yards a game. So everybody talks about their offense - and justifiably so - but the defense is playing every bit as dominant and hasn't given up a touchdown in 16 quarters. They rank third in points allowed in the country.

They have four outstanding receivers and probably could put up more yardage in statistics individually if they played more than half a game and they've got four receivers that have over 100 yards receiving as well.

They've only punted twice this year. So that's another challenge for our guys. And you know, our guys will be looking forward to the challenge. As I've said all along, you want to be challenged, and you like to compete, and they recognize and respect the things that University of Tennessee has done through three games this year.

Squirrel White is one of the best punt returners in the country. He's averaging over 20 yards a return, and he's a fantastic receiver. And then their running back, No. 6, Sampson is again very, very explosive as a running back for them. So they're really good, and then on the other side of the ball, on defense, again, James Pearce, he might be the best guy in the country on defense. They're really experienced up front, very disruptive, very athletic. They're long, explosive. They've got several new guys in the back end, but man, they've got length. They can run sideline to sideline. They're playing really aggressive. They mix it up. Got good balance to what they do.

And then their special teams units, are again, well coached, aggressive. Led by Mike Eckler, who was a former GA here and a former linebacker locker-room comrade of mine at Kansas State. He's done a fantastic job wherever he's been, and certainly doing that there for them right now.

So gonna be exciting. Gotta have a great week of preparation. It's gonna be a game that we don't have to play perfect, but we're going to have to play well. You're not going to play poorly and beat these guys. So our guys are looking forward to the challenge.

Have a long history, like a lot of people at Oklahoma, with Josh. A good friend of mine, and his wife, Dawn, and their family. Just everything that Josh has represented in his career, just as a human being, as a coach, he's first class in every way. So he's had a long history here, and again, he's done a great job everywhere he's been, whether it's, you know, Utah State, Missouri, UCF, certainly Tennessee. And winners know how to win, and that's what he's done. So cool to see that.

The history of the SEC, it's really difficult and challenging to win on the road in the SEC. And you know, I will not be surprised if that's the kind of atmosphere that Oklahoma creates. It’s going to take that. That's part of it as well. But I think we'll have the center stage in college football on Saturday night, and our fans won't disappoint.

Incredibly important. They do a lot of RPOs.

I don’t know how it ranks in regards to who’s running the fastest offense in college football, but they got to be right there, if they’re not No. 1. So, they go incredibly fast. The things that go along with that, that’s to neutralize you in lots of ways—your communication, your fundamentals, your ability to get lined up, your ability to put your eyes on the right stuff. In their presentation, it is a legitimate run, so at any point in time, the quarterback can pull it out of his belly and throw it into the space, wherever the space is—whether that’s over the heads of the linebackers, if that’s on the perimeter game. He’s got an amazingly quick release, a tremendous velocity and accuracy to allow that RPO game to really get into a great rhythm. So, if we can get them into definitive passing situations—again, they’ve got a veteran offensive line. We went after one of their starters in the transfer portal market, a great player for them, their left tackle (Lance Heard).

I really have a tremendous amount of respect for how they play up front. They are really aggressive. Cooper Mays, their center, somebody who I know their family—and Cade Mays, his older brother, played at both Georgia and I believe at Tennessee as well. Man, he plays with an edge. He just plays the decision—their whole offensive line, when they get down in their stance, they’re getting down with authority and sending a message. They’re incredibly physical, and again every SEC (game), you’re going to hear me say it; I just watched the tape. They play a physical brand of football, and I just have a lot of appreciation and respect for what that looks like. One of the best offensive lines I’ve seen in a while. Having faced several SEC teams through the years, this is one of those offensive lines, in my opinion.

So, it’s a great challenge, a great matchup for our defensive line, linebackers. We’ve done the right things so far. We’re developing as well. I like a lot of the things we’ve been able to put on tape. And some things we don’t like. We’ve got to get better. I believe that every game throughout the year it’s going to look like that: some good, some not so good. But you want more good than not, obviously. But I’ve got a great appreciation for where our guys are at, too, and their direction. I think they’re hungry, they’re driven. They show up to work. They’ve got great self-awareness. They’re not pounding their chest. They know that the challenge is going to be very real each and every week over the next several weeks. For us to have a chance to win, they’re going to have to play well.

Yeah.

My expectation is we’re going to play our best four quarters of football on Saturday night, in all three phases. That’s the focus. I’ve laid out a plan this week that allows us to do so. We’ve got to work our butt off. We’ve got to make sure we get a plan down early in the week so we can fine-tune that plan and the fundamentals, the physicality, the good-on-good work….

Then you gotta take, the players’ responsibility, all those things that you learn, habits that you developed, built upon throughout the course of the week, and you gotta take that to game day. It’s going to be incredibly emotional, there will be great passion and energy and enthusiasm, and those things are great. But that only lasts so long. This is a game of physicality and a game of execution. So that’s what we need to be able to take to the field. And that will allow us to play well. Well enough to win. Whatever it takes to win. That’s again the focus. But certainly to your question, can that happen? Absolutely. The next opportunity is sitting right in front of us. And that’s where our eyes are fixed.

Yeah, those are great questions and I'll be --- truth serum here: We wanted Akili Smith, Mike (Stoops) and I. We were only here for a couple days, and we were at Kansas State, and we knew him. But Mike recruited California, and Akili was coming out of whatever junior college, Mount SAC or somewhere. And he was the prototypical... Dude, I can't even remember how big he was, but he was a big strong, strappin' dude that could spin it. He looked the part, could run, could pass. And we didn't know anything about Josh, but he was outside of the office windows, there's the quarterback, he's one a visit and maybe two guys on a visit and he was one of 'em. And he was outside on the --- we had an old turf field down there. He was playing catch. And again, I'm saying this with incredible respect and appreciation for Josh. Couldn't have been more wrong. Don't judge a book by its cover. And he was skinny and just frail, and it was the middle of winter. Just kind of pasty and the ball was coming out --- he was a southpaw, probably hadn't played in a couple of months --- and the ball was wobbly. And Josh could occasionally do that and we're like 'That ain't it.' Mike Leach, he didn't wanna bring Akili Smith in on a visit. 'Nope, not interested.' So lesson learned.

But Josh, amazing work ethic and humility, same guy every day. Didn't try to be anybody that he wasn't. Incredible, again, humility, respect for his teammates. But he bridged --- and I don't know what the culture was like before we got here, so it's not really far for me to say that he changed it, other than there was some brokenness. And he brought people together, and he was able to relate to people regardless of what they come from. And that's a cool thing about a locker room, but sometimes it's not as easy to get it to mesh, everybody from all the different backgrounds and whatnot. But it was for him. He led the way. Offense to defense, one of his best friends was Torrance Marshall, and it still to this day. And if you know Torrance, he went to South Dade High School in South Miami, and of course Josh is from Aberdeen. Man, they couldn't have come from two completely different environments. And to watch those guys pretty quickly bond and become friends and help the locker room --- amongst others. There was plenty of guys that helped create the culture. But Josh led the way. And so he's always been a leader, and again, he's always had this innate ability to have great poise, great focus, but also have some fun. That competitive balance that allows you to be loose and confident and precise.

I know speaking from coaches and again, also being a fan, I was a fan, too. There can’t be someone with a stronger legacy. A national championship, coach. Timing’s everything. There was a period where Oklahoma hadn’t had a winning season for I don’t know how many years in a row, five straight years of not going to a bowl game. The first year, going 7-5, then out of nowhere, to go 13-0 and several games within that year, Oklahoma was an underdog, or had to come from behind in those games, where you really felt Sooner Magic was reignited. And he was a catalyst of that. And people won’t forget that.As we all know, that’s one of the coolest things about college football. It brings so much joy. You reflect to so many moments. It enriches your life because of those moments of success and winning and overcoming. We all feel like we were a part of that.

So both personally and professionally. Make no mistake, Oklahoma fans want to see Coach Heupel take a loss on Saturday, and there will be nobody that feels badly if they don’t do well. We know that. But people pull for people. And I think this is one of those times, you put the logo aside. He’s got an amazing legacy at this university. Again, sometimes God, you know, his way’s the right way, even though we don’t understand it and we Make a hard right hand turn. And he’s got something better for you. That’s exactly what happened for Josh and his family.

Poise under pressure. He’s handled everything perfectly, is how I look at it, because we won, every time. I say that, that doesn’t mean that there’s not moments, lots of moments that you learn from.Even like last week, had an amazing first half, great rhythm, come out the first drive in the second half, I think it was 13 plays, had to settle for a field goal, lot of good in there. I think we started the next drive, starts out pretty good, then we have back to back to back drives, where we had lots of breaksdowns. First-and-10, he gets the drive started, throws quick, it’s going to be 2nd-and-6, 2nd-and-7, our tackle’s not lined up on the line of scrimmage. Now it goes to 1st-and-15. Then we have a protection breakdown. Freshman running back. Get a free hit on the quarterback. He actually breaks the tackle. Got to learn, when that happens, he saw a guy, but he throws it in the middle, Deion was open, he tries to throw it to him after he breaks the tackle, and the ‘backer slid right underneath the route and takes it in and scores.

That’s a learning opportunity for him. Fortunately we were able to win the game, and that was to me the first, not the first mistake that he’s made, he’s in a long line of coaches and players who have made mistakes through three games, but the first, ‘Oh, gol-ly,no, don’t do that.’ Alright, come here, because you gotta go back out there. You get your arm around him and, ‘Hey, man, don’t throw it late over the middle.’

You throw the ball away or just run the ball. I loved how he responded. Did a great job obviously in the fourth quarter, we scored 10 points, he does a great job of bam, bam, bam. Doing a lot of things right, putting it behind him, learning from it. There’s growth in that. That’s how you get better. You want to do it through success and victory, but as we know, they don’t have this depth of experience through been there, done that. You want to try to help them. We gotta do a good job of helping. That’s our responsibility as a staff, is to identify how you can help. If that’s protection, if that’s play calls, it’s how you’re setting things up — players gotta go play, players gotta execute, players gotta play fast and sure of themselves. Their confidence and precision and aggressiveness comes from their preparation.

We got to do a good job of always helping them, being conscious of what’s going on in the flow of the game and make the adjustments along the way. And we could’ve helped him there in that particular play, that particular drive. But in all those scenarios, he came in in that BYU game on fourth down and a zero blitz, throws a dart. Even after that interception I think maybe two drives later, the next drive we have another protection breakdown that kind of screwed the drive up to a certain degree, and then the next drive is third and maybe nine and he throws a dart, man, right on time. Clears the linebacker, anticipates, throws the guy open, hits him in the belly and we drop it. That’s when it’s like alright, he’s doing all right.

That’ll be how he improves and gets better is through some of those valleys of a game that are going to definitely happen. But he’s handled adversity well. We’ve had a lot of scenarios that sometimes you don’t have in the first few games that I think we’ll be able to go back and rely on, whether that’s four minutes, two minutes, how to start fast in both the first half and second half, if that’s to overcome a disaster drive. ‘Now let’s go win this thing, let’s go put this thing out of reach.’ And he did that. There’s lots of those moments particularly in the last couple games that we’ll be able to rely on later in the season.

Yeah, they’re really good. They’ve got very good players. They’ve recruited good players, some older guys that have been in the system, understand the system, and they’ve got great skill — got size, got speed and they put tremendous pressure on you with their scheme, their tempo and their ability to be precise. And then on top of that, really good skill. It’s really tough …

They’ve got size. They’ve got speed and they put tremendous pressure on you with their scheme, with their tempo and their ability to be precise. And then on top of that really good skill. So it’s really tough. And some of it’s coming off again, off those play fakes or an RPO situation too. And so many teams don’t necessarily present that. They might have a few RPOs here and there but this team is built from the beginning of the game to the end, man.

They’re putting great pressure on you. So I love the challenge. It’s — anybody that knows me, I have a great… Again I’ve just got to read what the stats are. Some people might be like, ‘Brag on our own guys!’ Well these are the things we’re looking at and this is the challenge. And I like getting the guys on the edge of their seat. Our guys, they know. And our guys have a great maturity. They’ve had a, we call it be a pro. Be a pro. You show up to this building man, you flip the switch. Again, how you think, how you work, how to take notes, how you study film, fave respect for the game, have respect for the process. And this process will reward you when you respect it every single week like it’s the biggest game of the year because it is.

And so that being said, it doesn’t take them long to watch the tape either. And I’m gonna call it exactly how it is. And again, this will be a fantastic, amazing environment and one where again, I think the strength of our team is our defense. That’s where we have the most experience. Guys that are veterans in this system. We’ve got good competitive depth there without a whole bunch of injuries where we haven’t necessarily been exposed. You lose a few guys and all of a sudden you don’t have competitive depth. And you might have another guy but there’s nothing else behind him, so we’re fortunate from that standpoint. But it’ll be the biggest test that we’ve had to me offensively since we’ve been here.

I bet you one of the things he might say, he’s got (an) amazing family so they give him great support. Instead of peppering him with negative seeds like, ‘Maybe you need to go somewhere else. You need to start over.’ Really just supporting him and, ‘Hey man hang in there. This is part of the growth. You’ll be alright.

And then his teammates. I like to say it’s a lot of encouragement from his coaches, but teammates are the one to me that have been patient with him, have helped him think the right way, nurtured his development process. ‘Hey man let’s go watch film together.’ And Kobie’s an incredibly mature guy. He’s a self-starter. He’s self-driven. He doesn’t need anybody else to show him where to turn the machine on. He’s a very driven, consistent young man that just has a lot of really good habits that have helped expedite his growth and development too over the course fo a couple of years. But he would tell you his teammates have been probably his place where he’d call his sanctuary. They’ve helped him have the right perspective along the way so that he can go right back at it even when he’s not getting the results that he wants.

He’s got incredible faith. Comes from a single mom. Very spiritual family, great support. Great foundation. His perspective is pretty strong along the way. Through the frustration, he’d be the first to tell you very frustrated. High ankle sprains, sometimes you wish you’d rather, all things being said, a fracture is better than a high ankle sprain. Because the sprain is every bit as painful but it takes time. Different than you can put screws and a cast on and six weeks you can get out of that thing and be better than ever. Then Coach Chavis does a great job relationally with his guys. He put him in a good head space and continue to believe in him and help him to travel the choppy waters that come along with what you’ve been talking about.

We’ve done similar things for a long time when you have personnel. Not just good athletes. A good athlete doesn’t play good football, necessarily. Guys that know what to do, how to do it, have the instincts for it. They’re natural at it. There is experience at doing it. not just to do it because you saw someone else do it. Those guys, when Trace first got here, he wasn’t ready to do that. When R Mason got here, he wasn’t ready. We weren’t there yet. You want to lean on your personnel within a situation. Speed and athletic ability are important. Good, tough, physical football players every bit as important that can execute at a high level. They’re both going to play that, God-willing, amongst others, PJ, that group of guys they’re going to play that position in the NFL, if they get that opportunity. That versatility, that outside linebacker, we call them defensive ends. Sometimes they happen to play linebacker, hybrid. We recruit guys, we like guys that have that type of skill set. You have to be able to set edges like against the guys we’re playing this weekend. You have to be able to hold up. Those guys have shown the ability to do that at a high level. That’s a fun thing to do when you have guys who can be really good at it. That's where we’re at from that standpoint. Really like their progression and the things the coaches are doing with those guys.

He had his best game. Think I might have mentioned it, he had a high hamstring issue, might have been 10 days, two weeks in fall camp, end of summer. That affects a big man that is 330 pounds or so. He’s playing really good right now. He’s playing quick as much as he’s holding the point. Being a good knock back point of attack guy.

... He’s in a different spot than where he was a year ago at this time with his knowledge and his fundamentals and his technique and his ability to play to his strengths, which is power and his size. And then he’s been a really good leader. He’s got a fantastic attitude. Loves to work. That select group of guys has really transformed, and he’s been a big part of that transformation there. But really proud of his work and where he’s at right now. Love how he’s playing.

Welcome to the life of a defensive coordinator. How many (late plays) did you count?. I just know we didn’t have any busts from a late call, so that’s a win. I’m only snickering because we literally live and die in that world. Every once in awhile, I’ll get out of there and I’ll go in the offensive room so I don’t have to live there anymore. That’s very peaceful to live in that place. If I could be reborn again, I would 100% come back as an offensive coach, respectfully. But it's managing that, it's everything. At the end of the day, if you get lined up, if you can play with great fundamentals, great pad level, if you can be physical as a result of that, be confident as a result of that, then you have a chance to win. And if you can, it's not a matter of winning, it's a matter of how bad are you gonna lose? And so that's everything. I think defenses, top to bottom, have been better than they've ever been in handling that.

But this is the stiffest challenge that we'll have, and there'll be several other teams that play with tempo throughout the year. But this will be the strongest one up to this point in time, and one of the hardest in all of college football. A lot goes into it. So you try to emulate it, simulate it. Our offense does some tempo, you try to do some things structurally, how you practice that can emulate that tempo and that sense of urgency. And you don't have long to get a call and line up and execute, get your eyes in the right place, make the right adjustments off of a call that you got based on defense's trained reaction. You have to react to the offense, not the other way around. And so there's always those things that happen post-communication from the sideline.

I don't know what the level would be, but we've been talking about that since back in early spring. And the ability to create explosive plays has got to be one of the most important things that you do from an offensive standpoint to put pressure and stress on the defense. You have to be able to attack them vertically. Play design is a part of that. Players are a part of that because you've got to make plays. There's presentations to create those things that can also add to that. And so everything adds -- you put it all together, it's all really important. You know, in the run game, we've we had some good runs, and the exact same thing the players heard is, man, that six-yard run should be a 25-yard run. That 15-yard run should be a 40-plus or a house call. We haven't been there. And we're a little closer. And we got to make people miss on that third level. That's what good players do. You've got to make plays. And we've got good players. And sometimes they (the other team) make a good play too. So I think you would be negligent to discount the defense making a good play in space. But the ability to make people miss, run through trash, make something happen. On game day, again, sometimes the margin for error is bigger than others. But that's a very -- if you can't create explosive plays, you're allowing the defense to just keep creeping closer and closer and closer and making everything harder. So we've got to be able to establish the run with a more explosive, persistent mindset to create opportunities in the passing game. And the more successful you are in running, it's going to make things a little easier in the pass game. And we haven't had much margin for error. Everything seems to be a little bit harder than you want it to be. And there's issues everywhere. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And it starts with us as coaches. That's where it all begins – helping them be successful, both in protections and play calls and in regards to the route combinations and certainly in the run game, your presentation is a real thing. And then again, you have to be mindful too where you have some young players where you're putting too much on, and so there's where's that balance? And we found a really great rhythm in the first half against a sound defense (against Tulane). And they do a great job there, coach Sumrall and their staff. We're going to play better players. We're going to play every bit of the coaching acumen. That challenge is real. So we've got to continue to work hard and diligently both in our staff room, and you've got to look at everything. And that's our responsibility. That's my responsibility. You look at everything, question everything and make sure everybody's on the same page. And at the same time, you let people do a job that you hire them to do. And we're working hard to do that. And there's many steps that were looked at as progress, certainly improvement. And, we've get a lot more. We've got a great ceiling, in my opinion. And something that we're again looking forward to, again, just getting back out on the practice field and getting after it and developing the confidence and the continuity that is going to lend credibility to the things you're talking about.

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