Oklahoma coach Brent Venables recalls the two toughest road games he’s ever coached sharing a common denominator. They were against LSU.
Neither, though, were in Baton Rouge.
Venables was the Sooners’ defensive coordinator in the 2003 national championship game in the Sugar Bowl and was in the same position at Clemson for the College Football Playoff National Championship to end the 2019 season.
“It was deafening,” Venables said. “Could not hear on the headsets.”
Saturday, Venables and the Sooners get their first experience in Baton Rouge when Oklahoma takes on the Tigers in the regular-season finale.
The Sooners (6-5, 2-5 SEC) are riding high, coming off a stunning 24-3 home win over Alabama that gave them bowl eligibility for the 26th consecutive season.
LSU (7-4, 4-3) is coming off a 24-17 home win over Vanderbilt to snap a three-game losing streak.
The quarterbacks figure to be front and center.
For the Sooners, it’s a much different challenge than they faced with Alabama’s Jalen Milroe.
Oklahoma held Milroe to 164 yards passing with no touchdowns and three interceptions and just 7 rushing yards on 15 carries.
Garrett Nussmeier isn’t much of a runner, but is seventh nationally with 3,458 passing yards.
“He moves around really well, so they’re taking advantage of that,” Venables said. “They boot him, they roll him out, they dash him, they sprint him, so he can do a great job keeping his eyes down the field and throws the ball really, really well on the move.
“I love his toughness, the guts he plays with. Everything goes through him.”
Tigers coach Brian Kelly wasn’t quite as effusive about Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold.
Arnold has struggled at times with ball security, but is coming off a game where he ran for a career-high 131 yards on 25 carries.
“I think everyone here knows our history with the quarterbacks that run the football,” Kelly said. “That will be a challenge for us.”
Milroe ran for 184 yards and four touchdowns against LSU on Nov. 9, while Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed ran for 62 yards and three touchdowns against the Tigers on Oct. 26. LSU lost both those games.
