Clemson DC Brent Venables tells recruit he is not leaving

There has been talk about Brent Venables potentially leaving Clemson, but he appears to be telling recruits he is not leaving.

Venables, who is Clemson’s defensive coordinator, has been visiting recruits along with other coaches on the Tigers’ staff ahead of the upcoming dead period. One of the recruits is linebacker commit Mike Jones Jr., who told TigerNet that Venables said he was staying.

“He (Venables) knows a lot of coaches who are in other programs that had jobs and how everything seems good with people saying the money is better and stuff like that. But he says he loves what he does,” Jones Jr. told TigerNet. “He loves not having to worry about all the extra stuff with trying to be a head coach. He basically gave us his word that he is not going to leave. He loves Clemson. His kids love it. He loves the area. He knows when he goes home (back to Clemson from Florida) he is going back to the same coaching staff. He just loves not having those type of worries.”

Sure, that’s exactly what you would expect a coach to tell recruits to make sure they stick with their commitment. But in this case, the comments make sense.

Venables was reported to be a candidate for the Arkansas job, but that went to Chad Morris. Morris was expected to pursue Venables, but Venables taking the DC job at Arkansas instead of staying at Clemson made little sense.

It makes sense for Venables to remain at Clemson especially with most of the coaching jobs already being filled. Perhaps he’ll be a hotter candidate for vacancies next year.