When the Oklahoma Sooners and Michigan Wolverines play on Saturday, it will be the first time that Brent Venables has coached against Kyle Whittingham. Despite that, the two have some history together.
Venables took over as head coach before the 2022 season. His first year did not go well as Oklahoma went 6-7, marking its first losing season since 1998. That summer, Venables took his staff to visit Whittingham while he was the coach of the Utah Utes.
Venables said in his press conference that Whittingham was an open book and even helped him with questions he had as a new head coach.
"The physicality," Venables said. "The assuredness. The passion. The energy. You could see they had a great culture. Just this level of consistency that is rare. So,
I reached out to coach (Morgan) Scalley and coach Whittingham to see if we could come out for a day and a half, and so we took our defensive staff out there. Got a chance to watch them work out... watch film. We had an agenda we got through. He was gracious enough to allow me to spend time with him as a head coach and ask lots of questions."
The visit gave Venables an opportunity to see how Whittingham operated beyond the X's and O's. After struggling through his first season at Oklahoma, learning from a coach who built a consistently successful program provided a valuable perspective.
It also speaks to the respect Venables has for Whittingham. Rather than simply studying Utah from afar, he sought out Whittingham directly and spent time learning from him.
About four years after that visit, Venables and Whittingham will finally stand on opposite sidelines. The circumstances are significantly different from when Venables first sought out Whittingham.
Oklahoma enters Saturday's game after a dominant 51-0 win over the University of Texas at El Paso Miners, while Michigan needed a controversial final-second touchdown to escape the Western Michigan Broncos. The Sooners are looking to build on last season's 24-13 win over the Wolverines.
For Venables, though, the matchup carries an added layer because of the relationship that preceded it. Whittingham was someone Venables turned to when he was trying to establish himself at Oklahoma, and now the two will compete against each other in one of the biggest games of the young season.
The friendship may take a back seat for four quarters in Ann Arbor, but the history between the two coaches adds another interesting dimension to an already important Oklahoma-Michigan matchup.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Oklahoma's Brent Venables reveals Kyle Whittingham helped his approach
