Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables was still a young high school linebacker in Kansas when the Sooners won the national championship in 1985 under Barry Switzer. Forty years later, with Venables now in Switzer's position with a dominant defense of his own, that special team will be honored during the Sooners' game against Kent State on Saturday.
"A lot of all-time Sooner greats were a part of that team, so it will be great to have people like The Boz and Keith Jackson and Jamelle Holieway, Tony Casillas, Kevin Murphy and obviously several more, just to kind of name a few," Venables said during Tuesday's weekly press conference.
Sooners will honor 1985 national title team on Saturday
Venables admitted during Tuesday's weekly press conference that he actually didn't know much about the great defenders on that team, like linebacker Brian Bosworth, until a few years later.
The first time Venables ever attended a college football game was at Nebraska when the Cornhuskers hosted the Sooners for what was a massive rivalry then. As a future linebacker himself, Venables got a great seat right in front of OU's linebackers during warmups. That was his first time laying eyes on Bosworth.
"I'm like, 'That dude's a badass. I wanna be like him,'" Venables said while pointing. "I didn't know everything about him, and then 'The Land of Boz' came out, so he had the poster and the book, he changed to 44.
"I've told Brian the same story. But that was my first impression."
Venables went on to be a college linebacker himself at Kansas State before also eventually having his own national championship defenses as a defensive coordinator at Oklahoma in 2000 and at Clemson.
"I was very attracted to the aura of Brian Bosworth and just how passionate he was about being a great player," Venables said. "He was. He's one of the best to ever do it. Despite all the other stuff, man, he took advantage and created NIL when there wasn't NIL, and branded himself and all of those cool things.
"He's had a really long career and been very successful, because he's one of the smartest people I've ever been around."
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