Oklahoma coach Brent Venables praises Sooners' resolve in wake of Cale Gundy resignation - They've 'not allowed it to become a distraction'

NORMAN, Okla. — First-year Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said Monday that he's been proud of his team's resolve and focus following longtime assistant coach Cale Gundy's sudden resignation last week and the way the players have so quickly bought into the new staff's vision.

«All things considered, they've handled everything great and not allowed it to become a distraction,» Venables told ESPN. «You gotta go through some mud sometimes. You gotta get scarred up. You gotta go through some things, and that's how you go get better. You don't go get better and improve through ease and comfort in anything.»

Gundy, an assistant coach at OU for 23 years, announced his resignation Aug. 7 after reading aloud «multiple times» what Venables said was a «racially charged word» to his players during a position meeting. In a statement announcing his resignation, Gundy apologized and explained that when he noticed a player, who was supposed to be taking notes during a film session, was distracted, he picked up the player's iPad and read aloud the words on the screen, including the unspecified term.

Venables called the situation «very complex and very difficult» and added that «some of it you have great clarity and peace about,» while other parts of it «and what it means for people was the difficult part.»

«What I can tell you definitively is that there's great unity on this team,» Venables said.

From the day he took the Oklahoma job, Venables said the team has shown an eagerness and hunger to move forward. The Sooners, ranked No. 9 in Monday's AP preseason poll, lost two of their last three regular-season games a year ago, and coach Lincoln Riley left for USC the day after the 37-33 Bedlam loss to rival Oklahoma State.

«There was a little