Oklahoma football: Brent Venables adds to coaching staff with defensive hires

A little over a week ago, Ted Roof was hired as the new Oklahoma football defensive coordinator, and late this week head coach Brent Venables added a couple of defensive assistants.

Brandon Hall has been hired as an assistant coach working with the safeties and Miguel Chavis joins the Sooners’ staff as defensive ends coach. Venables also made official the addition of Jerry Schmidt as strength and conditioning coach.

For Schmidt, it is a return to the program he served for 19 seasons, from 1999 to 2017, under Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley. He spent the last four seasons on the staff at Texas A&M.

Venables and Schmidt worked together previously on the Oklahoma staff and know each other well. “That’s a critical hire on so many levels,” Venables said in a statement released by the OU athletic department.

“Jerry’s values, expectations and standards (including toughness and fearlessness) align with mine and our program. He’ll stretch them and squeeze them in ways maybe they haven’t been before, but its’ going to benefit them both on the field and off.”

It is a homecoming of sorts also for Hall, who grew up in nearby Newcastle, just 16 miles southeast of the Norman campus and is an OU alum. He was an Oklahoma graduate assistant from 2001 to 2003 and became a full-time assistant responsible for quality control in 2003, a position he held for four years.

For the past three seasons Hall has been defensive coordinator at Troy University in Alabama. This past season, Troy ranked 28th in the FBS in total defense and was 23rd in passing defense. He also has spent time as a defensive assistant at Northern Iowa, Jacksonville State, Auburn and Arkansas State before joining the staff at Troy.

"“To see him (Hall) continue to bloom at each of his stops has been really cool for me,” Venables said, “all the way to being one of the best defensive coordinators in college football the last few years at Troy.”"

Chavis’ connection with Venables comes from the time the two worked together on the coaching staff at Clemson. He played at Clemson from 2007-10. The past five seasons, Chavis worked with Venables as a defensive player development coach, helping with the off-field development of the defensive line.

“Miguel is a great story,” Venables said. “He is a former player at Clemson who was recruited by Coach (Dabo) Swinney and went on to play in the NFL. He’ll be a dynamic recruiter and a tenacious coach who will demand perfection. But he leads with optimism and love. That’s what I love about him.”