Oklahoma, Brent Venables conform to new 6-year deal earlier than SEC transfer

Oklahoma has agreed to a brand new six-year contract with soccer coach Brent Venables that features a important elevate and provides two further seasons.

The brand new contract, which the Oklahoma board of regents permitted Friday, will preserve Venables in Norman via the 2029 season. The deal has a complete worth of $51.6 million, the regents stated. The 53-year-old coach is about to earn $7.225 million in 2024 earlier than his wage climbs to $7.625 million in 2025, ultimately topping out at $7.925 million within the ultimate yr. He signed a six-year, $43.5 million contract when he arrived to the Sooners in December 2021.

Venables is coming off a 10-3 season and is 16-10 in two years at Oklahoma. He secured a top-10 recruiting class in 2024 and has the No. 7 class in ESPN’s 2025 class rankings.

Venables was a longtime profitable assistant coach and coordinator at Kansas State, Oklahoma and Clemson. He has coached in eight nationwide championship video games.

He took the Oklahoma job two years in the past after being selective for a decade about changing into a head coach. His choice got here within the wake of being a linchpin of two staffs that received nationwide titles at Clemson.

From the second Venables arrived at OU, the varsity was making ready for the transfer to the SEC. It considerably elevated the monetary dedication to the assist employees, which included 22 extra members in Venables’ first season in comparison with the prior yr.

Venables’ second season included an upset of No. 3 Texas within the Crimson River Rivalry recreation, which highlighted a 10-2 common season. Oklahoma accomplished the common season with a 69-45 win over TCU earlier than falling to Arizona within the Alamo Bowl.

Oklahoma debuts within the SEC this season — this system has been ramping up for it for almost three years. It has a schedule that features highway video games at Ole Miss, Missouri and LSU, together with the standard neutral-site recreation in opposition to Texas. The house schedule consists of Alabama and Tennessee.

Oklahoma will arrive within the SEC with two of the league’s prime defensive gamers — linebacker Danny Stutsman and security Billy Bowman Jr.

Along with Venables, a pair of assistants have been handed improved contracts Friday. Working backs coach DeMarco Murray and defensive ends coach Miguel Chavis every acquired a elevate and an extra yr on their contracts, extending every on the Sooners’ employees via the 2026 season. The revised contracts come six months after each Murray and Chavis inked extensions with improved phrases in January.