When Brent Venables put his initial Oklahoma staff together, my first and most pressing question was, What is Ted Roof doing here?
The 52-year-old Venables and the 59-year-old Roof spent the 2021 season together at Clemson, Venables as defensive coordinator, Roof as an off-field assistant, but the year before that, in 2020, Roof coordinated a Vanderbilt defense that finished 126th of 127 in yards per play.
One season does not make a career, especially one as long as Roof's, and especially not when that one season is spent at Vanderbilt during the pandemic.
So, let's throw out 2020. In 2019, Roof coordinated App State's defense to a No. 24 ranking; the Mountaineers were fourth in 2018. In 2018, Roof was the co-coordinator and safeties coach for an NC State team that was 87th in yards per play (60th in 2017). From 2013-17, Roof led a Georgia Tech defense that peaked at 57th in yards per play. We could go on.
Venables knows defense better than any of us, and he's clearly the world's leading expert on his defense, and so clearly he trusted Roof to implement his vision while Venables took a 360-degree view of a drastic culture change as a first-time head coach.
Now, heading into Year 2, Oklahoma is looking to improve upon a 6-7 season in which it dropped four of its final five games and finished 82nd in yards per play.
Venables addressed his porous defense by signing the nation's No. 6 recruiting class plus 16 transfers, six of whom play on the defensive line.
Another change: Venables will be much more involved in the defensive staff room. How involved? "Completely" involved.
"Not being involved, to me, isn't where I need to be. I need to be completely involved defensively. Not that they need my help but that's what I know. That's how I got to this position," he said Tuesday. "A year ago (I) was certainly involved but not to the depth that I think I needed to be after evaluating all of it. It's going to be a collective thing, just like every other defensive staff I've ever been a part of. It will be collective. This is one area where without question I know I can do a good job of just being another voice, another mind, another body to help out."
The most interesting line there, to me, is "That's how I got to this position." Oklahoma's previous head coach continued to do what got him to the same position Venables now occupies, and we know how that went: the Sooners' offense remained world-class throughout Lincoln Riley's five seasons, while the defense was never truly championship-caliber (and outright cost OU the national championship in 2017.)
Plenty of other coaches went the other direction once they finally sat in the Big Chair, leaving behind the play sheet in order to dive into their role as the CEO.
There's no right or wrong way to do it, but plenty of head coaches have seen their tenures caught in the no man's land between coordinator and CEO.
And if Venables is going to be "completely" involved in the defense, where does that leave the defensive coordinator?
"One of the reasons Ted is here is because of his depth of experience, both as a coordinator and as a head coach in three different conferences. He knows what it looks like," Venables said. "He understands what being a great teammate is all about. I expect that of all our staff."
"I have the utmost respect for him as a head coach, as a man, as a guy that's been the gold standard for defensive coordinators in college football. It's a learning opportunity for me and the relationship is fantastic," Roof said Monday. "He's done this a long time and been great at it. I love it. I love being part of a team, and I think we've got a great team as a staff. I look forward to coming to work every day."
No. 20 Oklahoma opens the second season of the Venables era against Arkansas State on Saturday (noon ET, ESPN).
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.