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Venables.......

Nov 14, 2011
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Bella Vista, AR
It just blows my mind that we let Venables get away and kept Mike. Just think about how good the last few years could have been with Baker and Kyler running this awesome offense and Venables defense. Damn.
 
It just blows my mind that we let Venables get away and kept Mike. Just think about how good the last few years could have been with Baker and Kyler running this awesome offense and Venables defense. Damn.
You will drive yourself crazy playing the what-if game.
We just have to fix this and can't look back.
 
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you are correct sir....cant help it

I know its hard to do but you have to look forward and hopefully Lincoln will make a good hire.
The program just has to learn from this and make sure it never happens again,they should have learned a ton of valuable lessons through all of this.
 
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My truth is, I wish Bob Stoops would have never come to Oklahoma.
Aww its not that bad,Bob is a good man, now did he make mistakes? Sure, he's only human.
I bet if you could get him to be honest he knows he made some mistakes along the way especially the way he handled the whole DC mess.
 
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Aww its not that bad,Bob is a good man, now did he make mistakes? Sure, he's only human.
I bet if you could get him to be honest he knows he made some mistakes along the way especially the way he handled the whole DC mess.

Bob did a really good job at OU and I certainly am glad he was our coach. I just wish he had put the school ahead of his family.…..Mike could have gotten a job somewhere so using family first wasn't necessary or right. Oklahoma deserved more from its head coach. But there's no reason to rehash the Mike thing anymore. It's history, thank goodness.
 
My truth is, I wish Bob Stoops would have never come to Oklahoma.

You definitely have a right to think that way, but I imagine if you could find other OU fans that feel the same way you all could hold your meetings in Sharon's She Shed once she gets it rebuilt.
 
Bob won a lot of games at OU, good for him. That is all he did. He brought in his brother and that killed everything. I don't know how in the hell OU recovers from this mess which Bob F. Stoops brought on by bringing in his piece of crap brother. I doubt that I ever get over this debacle. I hope OU recovers but I doubt that Riley can fix it. He aint gonna have Baker or Kyler next year.
 
The other kind of disturbing thing about Bob's last few years was his willingness to overlook some really, really questionable behavior of some of his players.

Glad he came to OU though. He did more good things than bad for the University.
 
I know people love Bob Stoops. I did at the beginning. However, he let this great program completely slip into the mud.

Slip into the mud, you can't be serious?! See Florida State...……..that is slipping into the Mud. During Bob's tenure as head coach and since his retirement about 18 months ago, OU has been a Top 5 program, things could be worse.
 
I believe Bob wanted Venables gone, thats why he brought Mike back and made him CO DC. Nothing says I want you out of here more than doing something like that.
Its like having a job at a Company where you have worked for quite a while and your boss hires someone that does the same job as you and starts them out at the same pay grade as you even though you have been there quite a while and have seniority.
I have had the exact same thing happen to me before and it worked, I quit a few months later.
I had the last laugh though, a few months later I was told the guy was fired for being under the influence of drugs while on the job.
 
The best way to manage any high level position in any form of business is to check your heart in at the door before entering. Recognize talent, promote by the book and don't let your emotions cloud your judgement. Bob, like Lincoln, allows their judgement to be clouded by their hearts. Mike should never have been rehired after his U of Az debacle and McNeil should have never been hired from the get go. Manage by numbers and results. If the numbers don't add up or stack up make a change. Don't allow a tainted culture to take root. I have experience in dismantling tainted cultures.
 
I bet if you could get him to be honest he knows he made some mistakes along the way especially the way he handled the whole DC mess.
Or how he just retired so he didn't have to fire his brother and just let Riley handle it. Bob ran from a problem he created. Bob assembled a complete disaster of defensive coaches, then wiped his hands clean of it and is now letting Riley take care of it. Pretty sad cuz the OU offenses of the last few years have been national title worthy.
 
Bob saw the writing on the wall, he knew he would never win another NC with Mike running the Defense which makes it even harder to understand why he brought him back in. But I think the answer is pretty simple, his brother needed a job and nobody else would hire him.
 
Well not at what Bob paid him, but he could have found a job somewhere. I blame Bob for keeping Mike more than bringing him back except for the fact he came back as co-DC, which turned out to be DC at Venables expense. I’ve lost a lot of respect for Bob in recent years.
 
Well not at what Bob paid him, but he could have found a job somewhere. I blame Bob for keeping Mike more than bringing him back except for the fact he came back as co-DC, which turned out to be DC at Venables expense. I’ve lost a lot of respect for Bob in recent years.

Maybe he had more control over Mike than he did Brent, I don't know.
Will have to wait and see what kind of job Mike lands when he gets one. Brent did pretty well, I am guessing Mike may end up at a crap school as DC or on some coaching staff at an average school but very very doubtful he will land a DC position at a more prestigious program. Would be nice to see him at another Big 12 School as DC so we could slap around his defense but who in their right mind would hire him in the Big 12?
 
It just blows my mind that we let Venables get away and kept Mike. Just think about how good the last few years could have been with Baker and Kyler running this awesome offense and Venables defense. Damn.

Venables was struggling as well. It's why Mike showed up on the sidelines and eventually as a Co-DC. Venables split.

Mike Stoops was equivalent to Ruffin McNeil. He was brought in to 'eyeball' the defense and give advice.
 
BTW... Venables and the Stoops family WERE all real tight at one time. Perhaps they still are. I'm not sure. But I do know that Venables split when Mike was brought back into the fold.

Regarding McNeil... I think Lincoln brought him in to do exactly what he's doing... transitioning. I do not believe for a second that he will be the DC but rather he was/is a trusted person from outside the walls of Norman and also the Stoops to assist in the replacement of OU's DC.
 
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Since this tread is about Venables, what’s everyone’s opinion with regard to his head coach aspirations, and could KSU get him back home?
 
Since this tread is about Venables, what’s everyone’s opinion with regard to his head coach aspirations, and could KSU get him back home?

I think if the offer is right he would jump at the chance to take the KSU job. It would be interesting to see if his defenses would work week to week in the B12 against better offenses than he deals with in the ACC.

Remember his last 2 years here the defenses he put on the field wasnt exactly steller.
 
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I've wondered how BrentV would have done in his years here at OU, had he not been part of a staff that Bob allowed to get lazy as shit. Recruiting suffered hugely and the defense just wasn't bringing in the bigtime talent like it did in the early 2000's. BrentV went to Clemson, and had to step up his game again in recruiting again and it shows.
 
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I've read where Venables does not want to be a HC. He's very happy with the money and the job security at Clemson. I would be completely surprised if he takes the job at KSU once Snyder finally retires.
 
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I've wondered how BrentV would have done in his years here at OU, had he not been part of a staff that Bob allowed to get lazy as shit. Recruiting suffered hugely and the defense just wasn't bringing in the bigtime talent like it did in the early 2000's. BrentV went to Clemson, and had to step up his game again in recruiting again and it shows.

If I recall right, the two best recruiters OU had at that time was Gundy & Venables.
 
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I'm a big fan of coach Venables. Spent a few hours with him in Lincoln at a coaches clinic. Coach Venables is a great person and a great coach. I remember when a lot of Sooner fans on this board wanted him gone. Now everybody wants him back.
 
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I remember it well. Everybody wanted Mike Stoops... big time. I sure wish I knew how to find/recall posts from back then. I was chastised at the time when I questioned everyone on what would happen if Mike Stoops failed. But that was then, this is now.
 
I believe there may have been a rift between Mike Stoops and Venables and Venables may have thought he was on the outside looking in since Mike and Bob Stoops are brothers.
So maybe the "culprit" behind this situation is Bob Stoops.
This is just a theory on my part.
I looked up the defensive numbers at OU under Venables and Mike Stoops. Venables' defenses yielded an average of 20 points per game.....Mike Stoops' defenses average 26 points per game. That's substantial, especially considering so many OU defeats were due to just one clutch stop late in the game that never happened.
 
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Yeah I am not missing Brent or Mike, I think OU can do better and should be able to. Come to think of it I am not missing Bob either.
If you come to OU to win a National Championship as they say then its about time we get back to winning them. I think Bob and a lot of his staff got too comfy and lazy at times. Just my opinion of course.
 
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