Clemson DC Brent Venables Named Oklahoma Sooners Head Coach

And so the darkness descends. Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables will leave the Upstate to become the next head coach at Oklahoma University. After Lincoln Riley made a shocking move to Southern Cal last week, Venables became the top choice in Norman, OK. Venables has been honest and open about the fact that he would only leave Clemson for the right head coaching opportunity, that came this year from Norman, OK.

Let’s be upfront here, this sucks. Venables has earned this opportunity and then some, but it leaves a huge hole at Clemson. Venables has been the best DC in the country by a mile since he arrived here and it is hard to see who could even begin to fill this gaping hole in the coaching staff.

We’ll have more on potential replacements later, but if Dabo promotes from within the most qualified person on staff would be current CB coach Mike Reed. After coming to Clemson from Boston College, Reed has quietly worked to improve the DBs during his tenure. He’s also done quite well on the recruiting front, though he sometimes gets overlooked in favor of bigger personalities. If Dabo does go this route expect one of the analysts to be bumped up into a position coach or for Dabo to look outside the program at that point. It would be nice to get some fresh perspectives in on the coaching staff and not just with new analysts.