Oklahoma football: What does head coach Brent Venables think of his team now?

Head coach Brent Venables calls this Oklahoma football team Team 128 in reference to the 2022 Sooner team being the 128th in the school’s rich history.

The first-year Sooner head coach liked what he saw from Team 128 on Saturday, but he also knows that they are going to have to get a lot better if they are going to contend for what would be a 15th Big 12 championship and hopefully earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Venables told the team after Saturday’s season-opening win all the great things he thought they accomplished in the 45-13 win over UTEP and that there would be plenty of things to correct off the game tape. He told them he wanted them to enjoy this one, “but on Monday we’re going to strip this thing back down to the studs and start over again.”

As good as it always is to win a game, Venables made a special point, both in the postgame press conference and again on Tuesday night on his radio show, of how special the first “Walk of Champions” of the season was on Saturday along Jenkins Avenue from the team bus into the stadium.

As the players departed the bus to walk among the fans on their way to the stadium, Venables said to them:

"“This stadium is gonna be rockin’ today. This is the start of it right here. They’ve come to watch Team 128 perform. Let’s put on a show.”"

It was a very emotional and special moment, the OU head coach said, and definitely set the tone for the game itself.

About this week’s opponent, Kent State, Venables told reporters during his weekly press conference on Tuesday that the Golden Flashes have great skill players and a couple of NFL quality. His message was pretty clear. This is not a team the Sooners can afford to overlook. Kent State was 7-7 last season but was 6-2 in conference play and champions of the East Division of the Mid-American Conference.

The Golden Flashes lost 45-20 at Washington in Week 1.

Venables said the Kent State offense is similar to what Syracuse runs, which the Sooner head coach is highly familiar with from his time in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Defensively, he said, Kent State plays a style that is much like Iowa State, a team that has given Oklahoma a lot of trouble in recent years.

Venables was asked during Tuesday’s press conference his thoughts about an expanded College Football Playoff:

"“I could care less, I really could care less,” he said. “I don’t even know what that means. but I do know it has nothing to do with today’s practice or nothing to do with Kent State.”"

Venables said he talked with the defensive players on Tuesday and told them not to worry about what the offense was doing (in the course of a game) and vice versa. Tempo was at the center of this discussion, stemming from a point in the UTEP game when the OU offense went three-out-out on back-to-back possessions. When that happened, Venables noticed, as did everyone watching the game, that the defense appeared to tire out.

Venables said on Tuesday that this really hadn’t been a defensive issue thus far, but he wanted to make sure it did not become one as the season goes forward.

Regarding OT Wanya Morris’ suspension, Venables said Morris was still working through an off-the-field issue, but that “he expects him back sooner rather than later.”

Venables said TE Daniel Parker, a transfer from Missouri, was out ill last weekend but is expected to play on Saturday against Kent State.

The Sooner head coach had praise for a number of Sooner players after Saturday’s win.

On sophomore LB Danny Stutsman, who had nine tackles and two pass breakups against UTEP, Venables said, “He’s just scratching the surface on what he can be.”

On walk-on freshman WR Gavin Freeman, who took a handoff from Dillon Gabriel on a reverse and took it to the house for a 46-yard touchdown on his very first college touch: “Man did we get a good one.”

On freshman DE R Mason Thomas, who recorded 2 tackles, a half a sack and half a tackle for loss in his first collegiate game: “He’s going to be hell on wheels.”