Oklahoma Sooners HC Brent Venables Looks to ‘Figure Out The League’ Ahead of Joining SEC

The Oklahoma Sooners closed their Big 12 chapter with a 10-3 record, falling just short of making the Big 12 title game. It wasn’t a perfect ending, and part of that is because of the rebuild Brent Venables is running after Lincoln Riley left the Sooners high and dry to take a job with USC in 2021. Since then, though Venables has returned Oklahoma to its high level of play after going 6-7 in his inaugural season with the program.

Now, the Sooners head to the SEC, a gauntlet of the college football conference. Oklahoma is going to have to prove that the blue-blood program can walk into the most competitive conference and play at a high level.

Sooners’ Brent Venables to “figure out the league” in the SEC

There is going to be an adjustment period for Oklahoma. It could be quick and it could bleed into the team’s second season in the conference. The defenses are going to be tougher, and it’s going to be harder for the Sooners to win in the trenches.

While the transition to the SEC is still a month out for Oklahoma and Texas, they took part in the SEC spring meeting this past week, where Venables talked about the transition to the SEC.

“My job is to figure out the league, not for the league to figure me out, that’s for sure,” Venables said in Destin, FL. “That’s the challenge of it. Been trying to do research and your homework and all those kinds of things, but it’s an exciting time. It’s an opportunity to learn and grow and get better. Again, it’s been kind of the gold standard, if you will, in college football for some time now.”

Oklahoma, as mentioned, is a blue-blood program. They’re joining the league which Venables alluded to as the “gold standard.” The pairing will be entertaining, but there’s going to be a level of expectation placed on the Sooners as they make the transition. It’s up to the program’s head coach to ensure the players and staff are ready to take on the difficult schedule during the 2024 college football season.

READ MORE: ‘Extremely Tough’; Georgia HC Kirby Smart Concerned With Oklahoma, Texas Joining SEC

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Follow Kade Kimble on Twitter.