Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables spoke at his weekly press conference today to preview his team’s upcoming matchup against West Virginia.
Venables started out by discussing how good West Virginia has been this year.
“Got a great challenge this week with West Virginia, who’s been playing really good football the last several weeks,” Venables said. “Coach Brown numerous times has said he feels like this is his best team that he’s had at West Virginia.”
“They’re really running the ball well, super efficient quarterback [Garrett] Greene is playing really well both the run and the pass. Defensively, playing really well and with a lot of confidence, playing with great effort, got an experienced group back there.”
Venables also touched on the experience of the West Virginia offensive line and how good they have been this season.
“They’re physical, they play with confidence, there’s really good cohesion chemistry there,” Venables said. “They work together well, kinda like that marching band, ‘You know it when you see it, you know when you don’t.’”
“They do a lot of pre-snap communication and they just don’t turn people loose. They’ve only given up nine sacks on the year which is 11th in the country, second in the conference.”
Oklahoma (7-2) started out the season 7-0 and reached as high as sixth in the AP Poll. They have since lost consecutive games to Kansas and Oklahoma State and slid down to 17th in the latest AP Poll.
The Sooners felt frustrated and are ready to move on to West Virginia.
“We’re onto West Virginia now,” said Brent Venables when asked about the loss to Oklahoma State, channeling his inner Bill Belichick.
Oklahoma is set to play a night game against West Virginia with the game kicking off at 6 p.m. local time on FOX. Venables was asked about his thoughts on it.
“Our fans, they do a great job showing up all the time, but for whatever reason, night games draws a few more people,” Venables said.
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