Gamecock head coach Shane Beamer "stoked" that Venables is no longer at Clemson

Venables is now the head coach at Oklahoma.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Mar 02 08:00:05 GMT-04:00 2022

There is no doubt that offensive coaches and head coaches across the Atlantic Coast Conference are happy to see Brent Venables now doing his job at the University of Oklahoma. But you can count University of South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer as yet another coach that is thrilled Venables is a Sooner.

Venables was hired by Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney away from Oklahoma following the 2011 season. During the first two years of Venables' Clemson tenure, the Gamecocks came away victorious - a 31-17 victory in 2012 and a 27-17 win in 2013. Since then, however, the Tigers have ticked off seven consecutive wins. The Gamecocks scored 106 total points during that span (an average of 15 points per game. However, in four of those games, the Gamecocks scored 7, 10, 3, and zero.

Over the last two games, South Carolina scored a grand total of three points in eight quarters, accrued a grand total of 21 first downs, and gained a whopping 380 total yards. That number includes just 104 total yards on the ground.

Venables is now back with the Sooners and Beamer – who was at Oklahoma before becoming the head coach at South Carolina – is thrilled. Beamer was recently interviewed by Kegan Reneau on an Oklahoma podcast called “Through the Keyhole.”

“Just from a defensive standpoint, the amount of stuff they do defensively – and now that Oklahoma will do, I’m sure – I don’t know how you coach it all,” Beamer said. “I mean, they were the biggest challenge for us to get ready for because there’s just so many things that they do. And there’s a lot of teams you can say OK, they’re going to be in a four-down, even front, they’re going to play quarters coverage and they’ll mix in a little bit of man free. Or hey, these guys are three-down, odd and they’re going to pressure you a lot, and that’s it”

During last season’s 30-0 Clemson victory, Clemson didn’t allow a first down until after they led 17-0 in the second quarter.

“I mean, with Clemson, with Coach Venables, it was just so much stuff, you didn’t know, and being able to adjust to different formations and things like that,” Beamer said. “So, that was the biggest thing for me is just the schematic challenges that they presented as you prepared for the game, and then during the game as well. We obviously did not handle it well at all and played really, really bad in all phases – not just our offense versus their defense.”

Beamer then thanked Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione for removing Venables from the Palmetto State.

“But I’m glad he’s gone, I know that,” Beamer said. “There were a lot of people on our offensive staff, including me, that were stoked when he got that job, for sure. Congrats, and thank you, Joe C, for that.”