Oklahoma releases Brent Venables’ postgame locker room speech after Texas win
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Oklahoma’s September to forget was a distant memory on Saturday in Dallas, where the struggling Sooners became the stunning Sooners.
The team that had lost at Michigan and gotten blown out at Georgia, that was 2-2 limping into the Cotton Bowl against top-ranked bitter rival Texas, came alive late in the Red River Rivalry and shocked the Longhorns, the college football world and maybe itself as it walked away with a last-second 27-24 victory.
Oklahoma started really slowly on Saturday, and it didn’t look like things were going to be any different against Texas than they were during that first month.
But the whole narrative on the day, and maybe the season, changed quickly in the second half and especially in the fourth quarter, as Oklahoma outlasted its top-ranked rival with a last-second field goal and then celebrated mightily in the locker room.
Included in the postgame party were some special words said by Sooners head coach Brent Venables, who has taken heat in Norman lately but had a chance to smile on Saturday.
Here was some of what Venables said to his victorious team in a speech that Oklahoma released on Sunday:
“Hey listen, the belief in this group, what you guys have been through, I know there’s been some real disappointment. Nobody has worked harder,” Venables said. “We were 2-2, (Texas) was 4-0. They were ranked No. 1, we were unranked. Every play has magnitude. Every single play. What until we watch this tape. If you learn something through it all, you believe, you block out the noise, it doesn’t matter what the opinions of others is. All that matters is what we do, and you don’t have to play perfect to win.”
Here is Venables’ entire emotional speech to his players:
While the Sooners celebrate their epic Week 6 upset win, there is the big picture to look at, and that’s an SEC title. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the latest SEC championship odds for that last team standing with the trophy in December:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
