Oklahoma craziness and recruiting roundup make for entertaining week

Venables' name has been a hot topic this week.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Dec 02 08:00:06 GMT-04:00 2021

This week is far different than it has been in recent years, but that doesn’t mean it is any less entertaining.

Clemson has been a staple in the ACC Championship Game, making six consecutive appearances since the 2015 season. We’ve been used to College Football Playoff conference calls and rankings announcements, and this week has in the past been spent previewing the championship game while getting ready to head to Charlotte on Friday for the team walk-through.

This year, we sit at home while the Clemson coaches are out on the road recruiting, but that doesn’t mean it’s been quiet. The Brent Venables to Oklahoma coaching rumors have dominated a good bit of time, and with good reason – Venables has been one of the key pieces during these championship runs. Some might even say – and I wouldn’t argue – that he has been the key piece.

The entertainment value comes in when you read the Oklahoma websites, boards and newspapers, and hear the radio and TV stations that cover the Sooners. There must be 200 people out on Twitter, some of them with as few as 47 followers, who have “OUInsider” in their description. And every one of them has a different take and some of them are downright funny. Most are ridiculous.

If you’ve been keeping track, Venables had been hired by the Sooners Sunday and would be announced Monday. Then it was Tuesday. Then it was Wednesday. Then Matt Rhule was leaving the Panthers and taking Joe Brady with him. Then it was back to Venables. Then Venables and his watch played a role as the conspiracy theorists went nuts. Their “insiders” on two of their biggest websites have allowed posts that say downtown Norman has been told to expect a crowd (for what, I don’t know. Key to the city? Groceries? Ticker tape parade?). And then Rhule was out, the watch was back in play, and announcements would happen at last night’s Oklahoma basketball game. Then they didn’t happen.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any goofier, another “insider” wrote the possibility that Venables could indeed be on the Sooner sidelines next fall, but as the defensive coordinator. Why? Because “sources” were mentioning Dabo Swinney’s name as the head coach because Georgia has turned off Clemson’s recruiting pipeline in the Peach State.

I’ll give you a minute to stop laughing.

Oklahoma may very well hire Venables. It may happen today. But I am convinced that when it comes to information coming out of the OU athletic department, their “insiders” may as well be “outsiders.”

But it is entertaining.

Now, for the recruiting.

Tuesday, Swinney and Venables visited linebacker commit Jaren Kanak in Kansas, and then they were joined by Mike Reed in visiting with Toriano Pride in Missouri. Venables spent time with Todd Bates Wednesday and visited Jackson-Olin High School in Birmingham, Ala. Jackson-Olin, the home of current Clemson linebacker LaVonta Bentley.

The coaches were there to see 2025 defensive lineman Jourdin Crawford and 2023 linebacker Eric Muse. Keep Crawford in the mental rolodex – he will be one of the stars of that 2025 class.

Venables and Swinney are scheduled to visit Keon Sabb today. Sabb created a stir when he went to Michigan last weekend, but he explained to the coaches that he was there to see friends. He is expected to sign with the Tigers in a few weeks.

We wrote a story about CJ Spiller and Tony Elliott visiting 2022 running back Trevor Etienne Monday night. Swinney was supposed to go on the visit, but at the last minute, those plans were changed for some reason. Etienne is still set to take an official visit to Clemson the weekend of December 10 and Swinney could still make an in-home visit at a later date, but his mother told me there won’t be a decision until the All-American Bowl on Jan. 8 (1 p.m./NBC).

I will have more of a recruiting roundup at the end of the week because I haven’t covered it all, but I spoke with the mother of 2022 wide receiver Antonio Williams of Dutch Fork (SC) Wednesday, and she told me that Swinney, Spiller, and wide receivers coach Tyler Grisham are expected to visit today.

We will have more on that visit later.