Former Clemson analyst on 'most intense' coach he's met: Brent Venables

by TigerNet Staff - Tue Apr 14 15:31:01 GMT-04:00 2020

Former Clemson defensive analyst Chuck Lillie is trying to bring a sampling of the intensity Brent Venables brings to a team, to Venables' alma mater.

Lillie was recently hired as a scouting analyst for Kansas State after working as an intern with the Tigers over the previous five seasons.

Lillie told a Manhattan, Kansas newspaper about his experiences working with Venables.

"He is an unbelievable person — probably the most intense person I’ve ever been around," Lillie told The Mercury. "He made the most out of every minute of every day at every meeting, every rep at practice. For me, it was just a blessing to be working in the same room as him."

Attention-to-detail is something that extends well beyond football for Venables. Particularly, soup over delicacies such as steak and lobster, and small smoothies -- and only the small variety. That came up when a local establishment mixed up the sizes on an order and was offering them to Lillie anyway.

“I’m like, ‘OK, you see the one for Brent Venables? You need to put that one in a small. I’ll take all the other ones back, but put the one with Brent Venables' name in a small,’” Lillie said. “The girl repeated herself and said, ‘I don’t think you understand. We’re not charging you for a medium.’ I said, ‘I totally get that, but you don’t understand. This man will say something about it.’ He’ll say, ‘Why did you get me a medium?’ ... He’s very attentive to detail, and instead of acknowledging, ‘Oh, I got free, extra ounces of smoothie,’ he would have asked me, ‘Why did you get me a medium?’”

Back on the field, Lillie said the Tiger DC's intensity can put him in a different mindset between the lines.

“He’s just in such a different zone and gets in his element out on the field, it’s funny,” Lillie said. “He might be telling a player, ‘You’re terrible’ out during practice, and then back inside the building, he’s praising them. ‘Man, you had a great practice today’ and the player is looking at him like, ‘What are you talking about? You told me I sucked.’”

Venables was an assistant or graduate assistant for six years with the Wildcats. He made honorable-mention All-Big Eight with Kansas State as a linebacker in 1992.