Why is Reggie Grimes excited to play for OU football coach Brent Venables? 'This guy gets it'
NORMAN — Reggie Grimes has the best of both worlds.
The junior defensive end has everything going for him heading into the OU football team's season opener Saturday against UTEP. He's in a leadership role after playing in the shadow of star player Nik Bonitto last season, and he's playing within the system of an elite defensive mind in head coach Brent Venables.
It's a system that Grimes has long wanted to be a part of.
Before committing to OU in 2019, the former four-star recruit had his heart set on committing to Clemson. Grimes wanted to play for Venables, who was the Tigers' defensive coordinator at the time.
Grimes received an offer from Clemson in June 2018, and the program quickly made his short list once he began making visits. After seeing how Venables operated in practices, games and even in the locker room, Grimes knew Venables was legit.
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"I originally wanted to go to Clemson," Grimes said. "They were my No. 1 for a while when they offered me. I wanted to play for a guy like Coach Venables. He was the kind of guy that I thought, 'I want to play for him.'"
Grimes never did commit to Clemson, though.
The Antioch, Tennessee, native told himself that he wouldn't choose a school until he thoroughly explored all of his options. That included taking visits to any major program that offered him a scholarship, and there were a lot of them.
Grimes received offers from premier programs such as Alabama, Ohio State, LSU and, of course, OU. By the time he did his due diligence, his window of opportunity to commit to Clemson had closed.
"It just got to a point where (Clemson) got full, which kind of sucked," Grimes said. "But it was what it was. I wasn’t really tripping off it because I knew what kind of guy I was and what kind of player I was."
Grimes' disappointment didn't last long.
He ultimately committed to OU, a program that he also felt would be an ideal fit for him.
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"I relish the competition," Grimes said. "We’re Oklahoma. No one likes Oklahoma, and we don’t like anybody. I always wanted to play for a team like that. Winning. I’m a winner. I wanted to go to a school that won. I wanted to go to a school that I could contribute winning to. And that’s what I’ve done."
After playing in five games as a freshman in 2020, Grimes saw an increased role last season. He appeared in 12 games and registered 18 tackles (2.5 tackles for loss) to go along with a pair of sacks.
Things came full circle last December when former OU head coach Lincoln Riley departed for USC. The Sooners replaced him by hiring Venables, much to the joy of Grimes.
"It just so happened (Venables) came here, and I couldn’t wait," Grimes said. "My first impression of Coach Venables as he was here, as I became one of his players, was, ‘This guy gets it.'
"It’s a privilege to play for someone who’s been held in such high regard defensively just coach-wise in football for as long as he has. The fact that he’s now my head coach, I love it."
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Talking about Thomas
OU has plenty of experienced defensive ends that it can turn to this season.
Senior Marcus Stripling is entering his fourth season with the Sooners. Redshirt senior Jonah Laulu is a Hawaii transfer with 71 career tackles. Then there's Grimes and sophomore Ethan Downs, who are both expected to make a leap in production.
And yet freshman R Mason Thomas has been the talk of the room. It's unclear how big of a role the 6-2, 222-pounder will have this season, but his peers are already looking at what his future holds.
“I’m telling you, R Mason is someone you’ve got to keep on your radar," Downs said. "He is the fastest dude in the room right now. He picked up the playbook like that. He’s just agile, he’s one of the lightest dudes in the room and he’s one of the toughest dudes in the room. He was throwing around guys that are nearly 100 pounds heavier than him."
Word of Thomas' potential has also traveled across the line of scrimmage.
OU's offensive line is used to going up against elite defense linemen in practice. The group battled the likes of Bonitto, Isaiah Thomas and Perrion Winfrey last season, and all three of those players are now in the NFL.
Still, Thomas has already managed to gain respect from numerous OU offensive linemen.
"He surprised a lot of us coming in with his pass rushing," junior offensive lineman Anton Harrison said. "He’s fast. He knows the game of football. He knows how to work his moves. He has a second move, not a lot of players can use that second move. As a young player, he’s really good with that."
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Invested in Venables
When OU kicks off its season against UTEP on Saturday, there'll be plenty of reasons for players to perform at a high level.
It's the start of a new season, which they hope will end with a chance to win a national championship. It's also a clean slate and an opportunity to boost individual stock for those aspiring to play professional football at some point.
But another motivating factor will be on players' minds when OU steps onto Owen Field this weekend. The Sooners want to play well for Venables, who is set to make his head coaching debut after spending the past 25 years as either a position coach or a defensive coordinator.
"Wholeheartedly, I do believe that," sophomore linebacker Danny Stutsman said when asked if the team wants to win for Venables. "We're all in it together. That fire brings us together."
That passion his players have when talking about him isn't lost on Venables, who has been talking about getting guys to buy in since he got the job.
Now just a few days away from his head coaching debut, it's clear that Venables has done that.
"That's great," Venables said of the support from his players. "But at the end of the day, this is their team. They need to play for each other, for the privilege that it is to play, and play and compete to a standard that we've very clearly established. If they do that with everything they've got, then we'll be the kind of team that we want to be at the end of the year.”
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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football: Reggie Grimes gets his wish to play for Brent Venables
