"It's a fourth and one mentality": Brent Venables opens up on his way of thinking as a busy head coach
Brent Venables' mentality is something that makes him stand out from other coaches in college football. His poise and ability to read the sentiment of the game under pressure help him make quicker decisions. One of the biggest lessons he follows is to remain humble and not forget the past.
While speaking to Josh Pate on his podcast on Monday, the Oklahoma head coach shared the importance of being calm and composed. He mentioned that it helps a lot during live games when the entire program is caught up in the heat of the game.
According to Venables, it's pretty different for somebody who is working in a nine-to-five job and someone like him whose entire career is dependent upon very few moments during a live game.
"It's a fourth and one mentality," Venables said. "The way you live your life. It's fourth and one, I think, honestly, that comes from gratitude and gratefulness for the opportunities that I have had through relationships, hard work, resiliency, growing up in a very dysfunctional home life, and so having an appreciation for some day." (3:30)
Venables added,
“And so when I got my opportunity, I was again, a crawl on at Kansas State, just finding a hole in the fence, and I got inside, man. I just looked at things from a perspective standpoint, from a different lens. I believe that. Man, I'm not the only one, but that's still a very unique lens, as you said, that has always become, has always been a part of my way of thinking, my way of chasing things that I've desired.
“And that doesn't mean you can't have fun in any way, shape or form. That's you're having fun doing it even when it's really hard, when you look right at it, when things get really hot on game day, man, it gets really quiet for me.”
Brent Venables shares how to stay away from disappointment
One of the key aspects to staying motivated and happy is to stop expecting, says Venables. He believes that undue expectations bring pressure and often distract people from what they are supposed to do. This skill is difficult to master but not impossible.
The simple trick that Venables asks his people is to trust themselves and remain confident about their skills.
According to him, it's important to stay focused on the process and keep the hopes and expectations for the end result aside. The veteran coach has come a long way to reach where he is today.
He has been playing the role of an assistant coach for over 10 years at Clemson before finally landing a head coaching job at Oklahoma in 2022. One thing that helped him throughout this journey was staying composed and trusting his process.