OU Fans React To The News Of Brent Venables As New Head Football Coach

After fans were heartbroken with the departure of Lincoln Riley, several people on OU's campus say they're excited for a new coach on campus.

Just last Sunday, a shock wave hit the Norman campus when former Head Football Coach Lincoln Riley announced his departure from Norman to coach for USC. It's something that OU fans say they never saw coming.

"When the USC thing came out, I was shocked," said Nathan Wong, an OU student. "I did not know that was even in the cards. I think a lot of people were really disappointed."

"They kept the whole USC rumor under rap, and it was really just a brutal 24 hour stretch for OU," said Trey Hille, another student.

A brutal stretch that the school hadn't seen in several years. Stability has been the name of the game for OU's football program ever since Bob Stoops took over as head coach in 1999.

Now with Stoops back as the interim coach, it gave Joe Castiglione and others time to find their next guy, which looks to be Clemson Defensive Coordinator Brent Venables.

"I think it's awesome for us to get a big name like that," said Luke Robinson, an OU Student. "I mean with Clemson being like national champions in the last five years, being a really good football school, I think it's a great hire for us to have here."

"He's going to recruit well," said Hille. "He's a guy with OU connections in the past and so hopefully he'll have that kind of bob stoops loyalty to him."

Venables was on OU's staff for 13 seasons and was one of the first names to be brought up during this coaching search. The common theme amongst Sooner fans is they hope this defense can improve moving forward.