Kirby Smart doesn’t need much time to explain what he thinks of Brent Venables.
The Georgia coach made it clear Monday that the respect runs deep ahead of Saturday’s matchup at Sanford Stadium, where unranked Oklahoma visits No. 2 Georgia for the first regular-season meeting between the programs.
“A lot of respect for Coach Venables and the job he's done everywhere he's been,” Smart said at his weekly press conference. “I have known him for a long time and have the utmost respect for him as a coach and a man and a person. We go way back.”
That familiarity matters because Smart and Venables have followed nearly the same road to the top of college football: highly regarded defensive players, relentless assistant coaches and eventually head coaches at major programs. Smart said the Sooners’ coach has long been one of the standard-bearers on that side of the ball.
“He's probably been one of the premier defensive coaches in all of college football for a long time,” Smart said.
Georgia has seen Venables before, though only when he was running Clemson’s defense. The Bulldogs have gone 2-1 against him in those meetings, and Smart spent part of Monday breaking down what has always made Venables’ units so difficult to handle.
“Very fundamentally sound, aggressive, attacking,” Smart said. “They lead the country, or tops in the country every year in tackles for a loss and sacks. I don't think people give their coaches and their kids enough credit for how they play.
“They get off blocks. They strike you.
They play with unbelievable pad level, and really an intensity that's unmatched in terms of the way they play. You see it on tape.
He's always been that way. He did it at Clemson, and he's just a great defensive coach."
The Bulldogs enter the game 3-0 after rolling past Tennessee State 63-3, Western Kentucky 70-20 and Arkansas 45-17 last week in Fayetteville. Oklahoma is 2-1 after opening with a 51-0 win over UTEP, then falling 17-10 at Michigan before edging New Mexico 14-6 at home.
Georgia is a two-touchdown favorite, according to Bet MGM*.
The matchup also brings back the only previous game between the teams: the 2017-18 Rose Bowl, a College Football Playoff semifinal that Georgia won 54-48 in double overtime. Smart said he doesn’t remember many specifics from that night, other than its significance.
“Man, that's a long time ago,” he said. “ … It was an iconic game because of what it meant and what it led to and where it was played.
Some great players in the game. You look back at Baker (Mayfield), who's a good friend of mine now, and then Nick (Chubb) and Sony (Michel) being a part of it.
So it was a great game.”
That Rose Bowl was remembered for Oklahoma’s explosive offense and shaky defense. Venables has spent much of his time in Norman rebuilding the Sooners’ defense since arriving at the end of the 2021 season, and now it’s the offense that has become the issue.
Smart said that turnaround is part of the reason Venables has earned such a strong reputation.
“Technique and fundamentals,” he said. “They have a great scheme.
They have an awesome scheme. They've got an answer for everything you do.
But that ain't what does it for them. They strike people.
They get off blocks. They attack the ball.
They play downhill. They don't play passive.
They have technique and fundamentals.
“You can see when people go to block them, they can strike and get off the block. That's what football is.
Defensive football is, are you hard to block? When you turn on the tape, they've got a bunch of hard-to-block guys.
When you're hard to block, you're good. Then you put some size and talent with it, and then you get what you've got in Oklahoma, which, you can ask anybody in our conference.
They're year-in, year-out, one of the best defenses.”
Smart was also asked about the resemblance between his own path and Venables’, but he said he didn’t know enough about Oklahoma to make a full comparison. What he did say was that Venables is built around a certain style.
“I know he's a defensive-minded guy,” Smart said. ”I know he's built on physical toughness and the way you play the game.”
In Other News...
John Mateer Heard The Boos With Georgia Up Next
John Mateer didnt need anyone to explain the frustration inside the stadium Saturday. Oklahomas quarterback said he heard the boos after two early interceptions against New Mexico, and while the Sooners still came away with a 14-6 win, the first-year signal-caller clearly knows the margin for error shrinks fast when the competition gets better. He settled in enough to finish with a 76% completion rate, 238 yards and two touchdowns, but the early mistakes were impossible to ignore.
Now the attention turns quickly to a much bigger test with No. 2 Georgia coming to town. For Oklahoma, the win over New Mexico was enough to survive, not enough to feel comfortable, and Mateers ability to clean up the giveaways will loom large against a defense that wont be nearly as forgiving. The Sooners got the result they needed, but the next one is where the conversation gets serious. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahomas Defense Is Carrying A Problem Sooners Fans Cant Ignore
Brent Venables has done exactly what Oklahoma hired him to do on the defensive side, turning that group into a far more reliable unit and pushing the Sooners up the national rankings in points allowed. It has given Oklahoma a sturdier identity and a chance to stay in games even when things get messy, which is a major shift from the recent past.
The problem is the other side of the ball has not kept pace. Since offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby and quarterback Dillon Gabriel moved on, the Sooners have had trouble finding the same rhythm, and the imbalance is becoming harder to overlook. For a program built to contend, the question now is whether a defense this good can keep carrying the load while the offense searches for answers. [Read more 🡒]
Peyton Bowen Knows What Oklahoma Must Fix Before SEC Play
Oklahoma came away with a 14-6 win over New Mexico, and the defense did most of the heavy lifting while the offense labored and several defensive starters were unavailable. Safety Peyton Bowen was one of the standouts in that effort, putting together a strong day in coverage and nearly turning a pass into a touchdown the other way, a reminder that the Sooners still have playmakers on that side of the ball even as the season tightens.
Bowen also pointed to the younger defenders who were forced into bigger roles and said the group stayed connected even when the offense gave the ball away. That matters with SEC play looming, because Oklahoma cant count on a performance like this every week if the offense keeps putting the defense in tough spots. The Sooners got the result they needed, but Bowens bigger message was clear: the margin for error gets much smaller from here. [Read more 🡒]