Breaking news: Oklahoma Sooners’ coach Brent Venables named three incredible players to exit the club as he plans on restructuring……Read more

On the field, Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables has had a difficult season. On the offensive end of the ball, everything that could have gone wrong did, and Oklahoma is about to miss a bowl game for the first time in 25 years.

However, Venables has persevered through a dreadful off-field struggle this season, reminding us that coaches have lives outside of sport.

Venables disclosed on Monday night that his wife, Julie, experienced a recurrence of her cancer in May, only two months after being deemed cancer-free. Additionally, he disclosed that she had just had surgery to remove a tumor.

According to Brent Venables on his coach’s program, his wife had surgery last week to remove a tumor after her cancer returned in May.

“She will continue to fight because it was a major part of the battle.”

What a difficult circumstance. #Sooners

— November 19, 2024, George Stoia III (@GeorgeStoia)

I can talk about cancer from personal experience. My father passed away with nodular melanoma six years ago. We all suffered during his treatment, and I’m still troubled by what I witnessed and heard over these months. It makes you dread the possibility of the worst happening while also filling your mind with anxieties about what might happen if it does. These emotions are unavoidable, and witnessing the afflicted individual go through these therapies is an agony that words cannot express. I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to experience that.

Despite being the head coach of a top blue-blood program with high expectations, Venables has been battling these feelings with his children’s mother and the love of his life. If he had quit in May to spend this time with his wife, no one would have faulted him. At the time, I was only a college student, and it consumed my thoughts and caused me to experience anxiety that I have yet to overcome.

I find it amazing how Venables manages to get through a day with everything going on. Even though it is negatively affecting him in private, I greatly admire him for managing all of this so effectively in public. I find it even more amazing that despite everything going on, the Sooners are still recruiting highly under him, and the defense made such a huge advancement.

I will admit that Oklahoma’s first season in the SEC has been quite disappointing. While some variables, like the choice to hire Seth Littrell, were within Venables’ control, others, like the offense’s crazily bad injury luck, were outside his control. But the team plays for him and responds to him every single week. The team’s culture has been altered under Venables.

The team’s growth and the culture he has established are very different from what Lincoln Riley had them do only a few years prior.

However, Venables has been dealing with one of the most horrific experiences a family can endure behind closed doors for the whole season. I find it hard to comprehend how he manages a job with such high demands while dealing with the struggles he, his wife, and kids are facing.

I can appreciate how frustrating this season is. Trust me, I have a lot in common. Fans have had some really perplexing situations this season, so it hasn’t been easy.

That being said, I think Venables is deserving of grace. This season, everything that could have gone wrong in his personal and professional life has. In spite of this, the defense has significantly improved, they continue to recruit highly, and the club strives for him in every game. Each week, Venables puts himself in danger for this team, despite the fact that his private life dominates his thoughts.

We are all reminded by this circumstance that there are actual people on the field who deal with their problems on a regular basis. Give Brent Venables some grace now, please. He is deserving. As Sooners supporters, we ought to unite behind him and provide him with all the assistance we can.