Oklahoma has agreed to a brand new six-year contract with soccer coach Brent Venables that features a important increase and provides two extra seasons.
The brand new contract, which the Oklahoma board of regents accepted Friday, will maintain Venables on contract in Norman by way of the 2029 season. The deal has a complete worth of $46 million, the regents mentioned. The 53-year-old coach is ready to earn $7.225 million in 2024 earlier than his wage climbs to $7.625 million in 2025, ultimately topping out at $7.925 million within the remaining 12 months. He signed a six-year, $43.5 million contract when he arrived to the Sooners in December 2021.
Venables is coming off a 10-3 season at Oklahoma, and the dedication by the college is a part of an general push to assist put together this system because it enters the SEC this 12 months.
At Oklahoma, Venables is 16-10 in two seasons, and secured a top-10 recruiting class in 2024. Oklahoma has the No. 7 class in ESPN’s 2025 class rankings.
Venables was a longtime profitable assistant coach and coordinator at Kansas State, Oklahoma and Clemson. He has coached in eight nationwide championship video games.
He took the Oklahoma job two years in the past after being selective for a decade about changing into a head coach. His resolution got here within the wake of being a linchpin of two staffs that gained nationwide titles at Clemson.
From the second Venables arrived at OU, the college was getting ready for the transfer to the SEC. It has considerably elevated the monetary dedication to the help employees, which included 22 extra members in Venables’ first season in comparison with the prior 12 months.
The contract was formally accepted by the OU Board of Regents Friday afternoon.
Venables’ second season included an upset of No. 3 Texas within the Crimson River Rivalry recreation, which highlighted a 10-2 common season. Oklahoma accomplished the common season with a 69-45 win over TCU earlier than falling to Arizona within the Alamo Bowl.
Oklahoma debuts within the SEC this season — this system has been ramping up for it practically three years. It has a schedule that features highway video games at Ole Miss, Missouri and LSU, together with the standard neutral-site recreation towards Texas. The house schedule contains Alabama and Tennessee.
Oklahoma will arrive within the SEC with two of the league’s high defensive gamers — linebacker Danny Stutsman and security Billy Bowman Jr.