Lebby, Roof and Bedenbaugh speak at annual coaches luncheon
Jul. 27—An annual mark of the approaching football season, the Citizen's Advisory Board Coaches Luncheon returned Thursday, but head coach Brent Venables wasn't in attendance.
Before the program began, OU play-by-play announcer Toby Rowland, who served as the event's emcee, announced that the second-year head coach will be in New Orleans over the weekend. A little over five weeks ago, Brent's wife, Julie, was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The Venables family joined Julie in New Orleans before she undergoes surgery on Friday.
"We wished they could be here, but we certainly understand why they're not," Rowland said to the crowd at Life Church. "And I know you'll join us in casting some extra prayers tonight, and tomorrow morning especially, for Julie and the Venables family."
Fellow OU coaches Jeff Lebby, Ted Roof and Bill Bedenbaugh took over to speak to the audience and answer questions from Sooner fans.
Like Venables, Lebby and Roof are each entering their second season with the program. Bedenbaugh will be in his 10th season with the program and has served under three head coaches.
For Bedenbaugh, the thing that makes Venables different from other coaches is how much he cares about his players.
"The first thing I'll say is he's a great man, and I think that's where it starts," Bedenbaugh said about Venables. "He cares about the players, like probably no other coach that I've been around.
"... I've said this before (about) coaching, and I love coaching, and I couldn't do anything else, but it is a grind and you're away from your family a lot. So you have to have that family atmosphere within the building. Our families are always welcome.
"And the biggest thing for me is he doesn't waver. We lost four games by three points, we lost a game by seven points and it was tough. None of us here at Oklahoma are used to it. it was hard but he stuck with it, he stuck with his plan."
Not all the questions were easy, though.
"Coach Lebby are we going to score against Texas this year?" asked one fan, referring to the Sooners' 49-0 loss in Dallas last season.
Lebby didn't miss a beat.
"I would like to say that if we don't, I won't be sitting here next year," he said with a laugh.
The Sooners are just a week away from reporting to fall camp. After roughly seven months of offseason, the Sooners are entering the final phase before kicking off the season on Sept. 4.
"I think our guys have done a ton to put themselves in a great spot going into camp next Thursday," Lebby said. "We've got a group right now that is hungry to get on the field."
Tarik Masri is the sports editor for The Transcript covering OU athletics and area sports. You can reach him by emailing tarik@normantranscript.com
