Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables will take his Sooners team to the LSU version of Death Valley on Saturday for the first time. Although Venables has yet to experience a game at LSU’s Death Valley, he is incredibly familiar with Clemson’s.

For years, Clemson and LSU have gone back and forth regarding who has the real Death Valley. Brent Venables, who coached at Clemson for 10 years, gave his opinion during his press conference this week.

“Well, let me look at these stats,” Brent Venables said. “Um, the one we’re going to this week, um, 14-1 in home night games since Coach Kelly has been there for three years. They are 18-2 at home.

“Listen, I’ve heard from every coach I love and respect, who’s been to the biggest venues, the best of the best, and everyone points to Death Valley, Baton Rouge, night game. I hope your team doesn’t have that planned. Because that is the toughest challenge there is in college football.”

That said, Venables doesn’t take anything away from Clemson. After all, the Tigers had won 40 straight home games before the upset South Carolina two seasons ago.

Clemson’s Death Valley is also an incredibly tough place to play, and Brent Venables has seen that firsthand.

“There is history (with) both. There’s a real history, you know, there’s a paper trail, if you will. There is a rock trail that goes back to Death Valley, California before Clemson and I remember as a kid not knowing where Clemson was. As an adult, I didn’t know what city Clemson was in,” Venables said. “I’m like, ‘What city is that in?’ Clemson?’ I didn’t even know what condition it was in. I thought Clemson was a university. I didn’t know it was the place name.

“I just knew there was a mystical hill that I thought came out of nowhere. Where did they come from? It seemed like an intimidating thing, and in itself it is. Incredibly intimidating, loud, environment. As good as it gets.”

Brent Venables knows his Oklahoma team will have its hands full against LSU in Death Valley on Saturday, but he’s excited about the challenge.

“I know we’re going to get the best out of the LSU faithful, but it’s something you also really look forward to because you love a challenge and that’s really going to be something,” Venables said. “But you tell your players again that external factors don’t win. The execution, physicality, effort, doing the things we can control. But it is something I am looking forward to.”