Following Lincoln Riley’s abrupt resignation as Oklahoma’s 23rd head coach, who left to take a position at USC following the 2021 campaign, Venables assumed the position. After almost eleven years as the defensive coordinator for the Clemson Tigers, Venables recently left the school having assembled arguably of the top defenses in college football.
During his tenure at Clemson, Venables coached 33 players selected in the NFL draft, including first-round picks Dexter Lawrence, Christian Wilkins, Isaiah Simmons, or A.J. Terrell.
Venables was Oklahoma’s co-defensive coordinator before to joining Clemson. Venables led OU to three more national championship game trips, seven Big 12 titles, and the 2000 national championship between 1999 and 2011.
Oklahoma linebackers under Venables won three Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year awards, five Big 12 Defensive Newcomer of the Year accolades, and six first-team All-America honors. Ten of his linebackers at Oklahoma and 31 defensive players overall were taken in the 2000-2012 NFL Drafts.
After seemingly a decade of poor defensive performances, the Oklahoma Sooners are banking on Venables being able to turn their defense around. Oklahoma went 6-7 in his first year as their head coach.
Ted Roof has been a collegiate defense coach for thirty years. Prior to hopping around universities and taking a position as defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech from 1999 to 2001, Roof began his career as a defensive coordinator at UMass in 1995.
After that, Roof would oversee the defense for the Duke Blue Devils until taking over as head coach in 2004–07. Roof had a 6-45 record at the end of his head coaching career.
Roof bounced back fast, taking on the role of defensive coordinator at Minnesota before moving on to Auburn, where he assisted the Tigers in winning the national championship. Roof would transfer between universities, serving as defensive coordinator for a year or two at six different institutions until taking a job as an analyst with Brent Venables at Clemson.
Roof made a quick recovery, joining Minnesota as defensive coordinator before going to Auburn to help the Tigers win the national championship. Roof would move between colleges, working for a year or two as defensive coordinator at six different schools until joining Brent Venables as an analyst at Clemson.
Auburn (Coordinator of Defense, 2009–10)
UCF (Coach of Defense, 2011)
In 2012, the defensive coordinator at Penn State
Georgia Tech (2013–17, Defensive Coordinator)
NC State (co-defensive coordinator and associate head coach, 2018)
The 2019 defensive coordinator for Appalachian State
2020 Defensive Coordinator at Vanderbilt
Clemson (2021) as a defensive analyst
A former player and student assistant coach at Oklahoma, Lebby has built a reputation for coaching some of college football’s most productive offenses over the last several seasons. Lebby coached running backs for the Baylor Bears from 2012-2016, mentoring Lache Seastrunk, Shock Linwood, and JaMycal Hasty during his tenure there. Lebby spent a year as an offensive coordinator in the NAIA ranks in 2017 before serving as the quarterbacks coach at UCF in 2018 under former Sooner teammate Josh Heupel, where he helped mentor McKenzie Milton to a sixth-place finish in Heisman voting. Lebby was promoted to the Golden Knights’ offensive coordinator in 2019.
Emmett Jones is in his first year as Oklahoma’s wide receivers coach in 2023. Longtime Dallas-area high school coach Jones began his collegiate coaching career in 2015 at Texas Tech, where he was mentored by Kliff Kingsbury.
Jones coached a number of successful receivers at Texas Tech, including Dylan Cantrell, T.J. Vasher, Jakeem Grant, Keke Coutee, and Antoine Wesley. After serving in the same capacity on Les Miles’ Kansas staff from 2019 to 2021, Jones returned to Texas Tech in 2022 to coach receivers.
Lebby used his UCF accomplishments to gain employment in the SEC, where he served as Ole Miss Rebels’ offensive coordinator from 2020 to 2021. In terms of overall offense in 2020 and 2021, Ole Miss led the SEC. In both of those seasons, he was included as a semifinalist for the Broyles Award, which is given to the greatest assistant coach in college football.
Lebby’s complete coaching résumé is available here:
