Oklahoma coach Brent Venables says Sooners likely won't play Friday games in the future

NORMAN, Okla. -- Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said the Sooners likely will avoid playing Friday games in the future to out of respect for high school football.

Friday's season opener against UTEP was originally scheduled for Saturday, but Oklahoma announced the move in June.

Venables said Monday he doesn't feel right about it.

"(How if affects) the high school coaches across the state, the teams, the players – I don’t love that part of it," he said. "I don’t think it will be a part of who we are moving forward.”

Venables was initially excited about the date change.

"Friday night games are rare for us, especially at home," Venables said in a statement in June, "so the opportunity to open our season under the lights on a Friday evening on Owen Field is exciting for our team. I expect the environment to be absolutely incredible, and I know our players will feed off that electricity."

Venables hopes he has not created bad feelings with Oklahoma's high school coaches.

"There is no perfect way to do it," he said. "My job is to do what’s best for our football team," he said. "There are some layers to it. ... We certainly value high school football and the purity of it, and what it means to so many people. This is just a unique moment is how I look at it. Not ideal. Certainly understand the dilemma."

Oklahoma has played in 17 Friday games, but most of those were Thanksgiving weekend against Nebraska in the Big 8/Big 12 days. The Sooners hosted Temple in their 2024 season opener -- a 51-3 win.

It's too late to change anything now, so Venables and his team are focused on the game. He said the Sooners started their game-week prep on Sunday instead of Monday, but otherwise, the schedule hasn't changed.

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"In a normal game week -- for our guys and our coaches -- you’ve got to stay consistent in that approach I think those structures and our processes, our scheduling -- that’s how you’re successful, by buying into that," he said. 

It’s football time in Oklahoma. pic.twitter.com/FNLUMhI2Uw

Venables said the biggest adjustment heading into the opener is not the date, but rather switching to the in-season weekly limit of 20 hours for practice, meetings, walkthroughs and weights combined.

He said a benefit of playing on Friday is an extra day of recovery before visiting Michigan the following Saturday.

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