Sooner than later: Clemson loses Brent Venables to Oklahoma

Brent Venables finally received an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Clemson’s longtime defensive coordinator was selected as football coach at Oklahoma on Sunday.

He'll be introduced at a celebration at OU's Everest Training Center at 11:30 a.m.

Venables replaces Lincoln Riley, who left Nov. 28 after five seasons with the Sooners to become the football coach at Southern Cal.

Venables had spurned multiple overtures and opportunities for head coaching positions during his 10 seasons with the Tigers, but it took Oklahoma – where he had spent 13 seasons (1999-2011) as a defensive coordinator and linebackers coach – to lure him away from a Clemson program that he had helped guide to two national championships.

The Tigers went 120-17 during Venables’ time at Clemson, won six Atlantic Coast Conference titles and made the College Football Playoff six times.

Venables became the highest-paid assistant coach in college football while at Clemson and in July agreed to a salary increase to $2.5 million a year and an extension to 2026.

“You want fulfillment,” Venables said in July. “And you don’t want to screw up happy, and that’s easy to do if you’re not careful.

“I’m able to come to work every day to chase and fulfill my purpose every day. So whether I’m in a head coach’s office or I’m down the hall, I’m leading, teaching and doing what I want to do.”

The move marks a return to Venables’ midwestern roots – he played linebacker at Kansas State, then served as an assistant coach for the Wildcats under coach Bill Snyder for six seasons before joining the staff at Oklahoma in 1999 as co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. He spent 13 seasons with the Sooners, including the last eight years as the sole defensive coordinator.

But after spurning multiple overtures and offers from other schools in recent years, Venables finally found what would appear to be a fateful fit.

"This is an incredibly special opportunity," Venables said Sunday night. "There's no question we are equipped to compete at the very highest level and attract the best players from across the country. The OU logo has never been stronger."

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Former Oklahoma players who played for Venables offered their verbal support for Venables from the outset of the Sooners' search, including Teddy Lehman and Ontei Jones, both of whom were part of Oklahoma's 2000 national championship team.

“Knowing what he’s about — the physicality, the toughness — I feel that your team takes on the demeanor of the head coach,” told The Oklahoman on Sunday. “I felt as if Oklahoma shouldn’t fall down the rabbit hole of chasing offense.

"I thought we should go for a defensive guy to stop giving up these basketball scores and focus on stopping people from scoring 40 so we don’t have to worry about all the five-star athletes and scoring 50 points a game.

“Brent Venables is my guy.”

He was Lehman's pick as well.

“You know where my vote goes – I would love to see Venables as the next head football coach,” said Lehman, a radio show host and color analyst for Oklahoma football. “I think he’s more than qualified. I think he’s more than qualified anywhere, but specifically for this job. I would love that.”

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney hired Venables in 2012 to replace Kevin Steele, whose defense surrendered a bowl-record 70 points to West Virginia in a loss in the Orange Bowl to end the 2011 season.

Venables’ impact on Clemson’s defensive fortunes was almost immediate. In his second season, 2013, Clemson led the nation in tackles for loss and his 2014 unit led the nation in total defense and tackles for loss and ranked third in scoring defense and sixth in sacks.

Clemson has finished among the Top 15 defenses in the nation in total defense each season since, including this season. The Tigers rank ninth in total defense nationally and second nationally in scoring defense, allowing 15.0 points per game.

Venables, 50, and his wife, Julie, have two sons and two daughters. Their elder son, Jake, recently left the Clemson program after three injury-plagued seasons; he made 89 tackles while playing in 31 career games.

Their younger son, Tyler, is a sophomore safety who made two starts and totaled 32 tackles while playing in 11 games this season.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Sooner than later: Clemson loses Brent Venables to Oklahoma