The Colorado Buffaloes have become a lightning rod of controversy ever since hiring Deion Sanders (Coach Prime) to be their football team’s head coach. Now, the latest dose of controversy is coming from Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables.
“You know, I gave guys twelve months of grace,” Venables said, during Big 12 Media Days. “I was unlike Deion [Sanders]. I gave guys 12 months of grace to figure it out.”
Coach Venables is referencing a new rule that allows an incoming head coach far more roster control than they once had, in an effort to aid the rebuild process. Under the new rule, coaches can remove players from the program’s roster, so long as the players remain under scholarship with the university.
Considering the dramatic rebuild Colorado was in need of, Coach Prime utilized all the tools at his disposal and quickly turned over the CU Buffs roster.
That move has led to Coach Prime being criticized by several notable members of the college football world, including Pat Narduzzi, and now, Coach Venables.
Venables went on to say that, during his first year with Oklahoma, he gave all the players three tenets, and that if the players didn’t follow those tenets, the staff would, ‘help them find new opportunities,’ during the next offseason.
While Brent Venables’ approach certainly has its merits, it should be noted that the Karl Dorrell Colorado Buffaloes and the Lincoln Reily Oklahoma Sooners could not have been more diametrically opposed. There was a much less pressing need to overhaul the roster in the same way Coach Prime had to. If you were talented enough to make Lincoln Reily’s Oklahoma roster, you were plenty talented enough to stick around for a trial season.
Also, maybe Venables should’ve gotten a jump on using the transfer portal sooner.
During his first season on the job, the Sooners went 6-7 and posted a conference record of 3-6 — both of which were the program’s worst marks since 1997.
It’s hard to argue, ‘they should be doing it my way’, when ‘your way’ results in the program’s worst season in two-and-a-half decades.