- Thread starter
- #1
iowajerms
Well-Known Member
- 20,650
- 2,780
- 293
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2011
- Location
- Iowa, US
- Hoopla Cash
- $ 29,091.39
- Fav. Team #1
- Fav. Team #2
- Fav. Team #3
Is it time for Bob Stoops to leave the Oklahoma Sooners? - ESPN
by Travis Haney
Oklahoma should have a new coach in 2015.
No, Bob Stoops is not getting fired. He sports a 166-42 career record and has never had a losing season.
However, Stoops should strongly consider leaving on his own volition to shake things up. It would be of benefit to his career, to Oklahoma -- and to his next school.
If jobs at Florida and Michigan do open, both would have Stoops high on their wish lists. And the feeling should be mutual.
Let’s face the facts: Oklahoma has gotten stagnant.
“It happens. He should move on,” one coach told me Saturday. “Ten years is the max, I would say.”
If the staleness wasn’t clear, Saturday’s 48-14 loss to Baylor drove home the point.
After winning 75 of his first 77 games at Owen Field, Stoops is 14-5 there since then.
“That was a tough place to play,” one coach told me Saturday night.
Yeah -- was.
Even in their previous six home defeats, Stoops' Sooners had not been embarrassed like this. OU fans lustily booed the team’s soft defense early in the second half on Saturday. And that’s before the game really went sideways.
The Sooners lost by 34; Stoops’ first six home losses came by a combined 36 points.
Put it this way: There’s a growing number of OU fans who would help load Stoops’ moving van if the day came. Too many years of promise have gone unfulfilled, and too many years have passed since the Sooners' 2000 BCS title.
“I think it’s very real,” one coach said when I asked him generally about OU's staleness. “Fans get spoiled. A lot of coaches move on to keep it new, keep energy high. Look at Urban [Meyer].”
Maybe it was just a contract leverage play, which worked, but I believed some coaches when they told me Stoops had genuine interest last winter in the Cleveland Browns job.
“I think he’s looking for other options,” a coach said Saturday.
When the topic of disappointment came up this summer, Stoops focused on the 2009 season, in which a number of players -- including Heisman-winning QB Sam Bradford -- dealt with injuries.
That’s fine -- totally fair. But he didn’t have any explanation for OU's three-loss season in 2011, and this year's team -- widely considered a contender for a playoff spot -- now has three losses, including two consecutive home defeats.
Baylor, a program moving in the opposite direction, has now beaten OU in three of the past four meetings; it was 0-20 in the series prior to 2011.
Do you need more evidence than that to prove that things have changed in the Big 12? This is no longer a league run by OU and Texas. The changing of the guard came en masse, with Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and now TCU ushering UT and OU to the periphery.
Things had gotten similarly stale in Austin, and Texas made a change.
Stoops is not on any sort of hot seat -- yet. But he is trending in that direction. So now’s the time for Stoops to make the change himself.
The school loves to boast how long the president, AD and coach have been together, and rightfully so. But all good runs come to an end. Might as well transition with some grace.
Extra points
• Someone asked me this corresponding question: If Stoops were to leave, where would Oklahoma turn? How high could it aim? AD Joe Castiglione had just started when he hired Stoops, who had never previously been a head coach. The hiring game has kind of changed. A number of ADs have been burned recently by first-time coaches, so I doubt OU would go for someone like Clemson OC Chad Morris or Alabama DC Kirby Smart. But maybe Castiglione would, searching for similar magic.
I think the two Mississippi coaches, Dan Mullen and Hugh Freeze, would make logical fits. Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez, too. Some fans would want to pry TCU's Gary Patterson or Baylor's Art Briles from their perches, but I seriously doubt either would leave. And if you want an off-the-radar name, Memphis’ Justin Fuente has some Oklahoma ties. He’s from Tulsa and started his playing career at OU before finishing at Murray State. Fuente is 13-20 at Memphis, but he's had to make a complete overhaul, and this season, he has the Tigers (6-3) bowl eligible.
• College football is tough to project (this season more than most), but here’s one thing you can take to the bank: Marcus Mariota is winning the Heisman Trophy. Oregon withstood an early test from Utah, and after a bye, it has only regular-season games against Colorado and Oregon State remaining. Even for the Ducks’ banged-up offense, both would seem to be prime opportunities for Mariota to rack up some numbers and rest in the fourth quarter. Oregon would then play Arizona State (if both win out) in the Pac-12 title game, by virtue of division records.
Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon, who has 1,501 yards and 21 TDs in nine games, is likely No. 2 right now. Gordon has remaining games against Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, and the Badgers could still reach the Big Ten title game. Gordon is not out of the hunt, but Boston College’s Andre Williams ran for 2,000 yards last season and lost to a QB.
Also: If Mississippi State continues to win, Dak Prescott will have some support. But this is Mariota’s award. Many felt as if he should have at least been a finalist last year. With Oregon in good shape for a playoff berth, it’s Mariota’s time. It makes sense. After all, he is the best player in the country.
• Every week, TCU impresses. The Frogs very rarely seem fazed, and they grind through those stretches. They breezed past a good Kansas State team 41-20 on Saturday. I’ve got QB Trevone Boykin back up at No. 3 in my Heisman Watch poll. I’m not alone in my praise of the Frogs. “TCU may win the whole thing,” a coach texted me Saturday. “The QB is phenomenal and just doesn’t turn it over. They’ll be a hard out for anyone.” One problem: Baylor won head-to-head and is still ahead in the Big 12 race. TCU has maintained an advantage in the College Football Playoff rankings, but could Baylor’s statement in Norman close the gap? If both teams win out --regardless of the “eye test” -- how could the head-to-head winner be kept out? It wouldn’t. Watch this week to see how close Baylor creeps toward TCU in the committee’s rankings. The gap was six spots last week. If the panel is really starting each week from scratch, the Bears should be very near the Frogs.
• There’s a potential road block on TCU’s schedule that isn’t getting much attention: Texas. The Frogs go to Austin on Thanksgiving night.
Texas, if you’ve sort of lost track, is improving. The Horns knocked off West Virginia 33-16 on Saturday. They’ve scored 30-plus points two straight weeks after being shut out for the first time in a decade. (Of note: Charlie Strong crowd-surfed in UT’s postgame locker room.) This team weathered the dismissals and QB David Ash’s career-ending head injury. It’s coming together, possibly just in time to wreck an in-state school’s shot at a playoff bid.
• I had been told repeatedly that Kansas AD Sheahon Zenger and the school's administration was looking for reasons to keep interim coach Clint Bowen, the Lawrence native who played at KU. He just needed a win or two. Well, Bowen has one now. The Jayhawks blew out Iowa State on Saturday, winning 34-14 to give Bowen as many Big 12 victories as his two predecessors, Charlie Weis and Turner Gill. The closing stretch of TCU, Oklahoma and Kansas State -- three teams that were in the CFP top 15 entering Saturday -- is as brutal as it gets in the league. So was this win enough? KU is playing much, much better, but does Zenger believe Bowen is ready for a Big 12 job? No matter what, expect Bowen back in 2015, either as the team's DC or the head man.
by Travis Haney
Oklahoma should have a new coach in 2015.
No, Bob Stoops is not getting fired. He sports a 166-42 career record and has never had a losing season.
However, Stoops should strongly consider leaving on his own volition to shake things up. It would be of benefit to his career, to Oklahoma -- and to his next school.
If jobs at Florida and Michigan do open, both would have Stoops high on their wish lists. And the feeling should be mutual.
Let’s face the facts: Oklahoma has gotten stagnant.
“It happens. He should move on,” one coach told me Saturday. “Ten years is the max, I would say.”
If the staleness wasn’t clear, Saturday’s 48-14 loss to Baylor drove home the point.
After winning 75 of his first 77 games at Owen Field, Stoops is 14-5 there since then.
“That was a tough place to play,” one coach told me Saturday night.
Yeah -- was.
Even in their previous six home defeats, Stoops' Sooners had not been embarrassed like this. OU fans lustily booed the team’s soft defense early in the second half on Saturday. And that’s before the game really went sideways.
The Sooners lost by 34; Stoops’ first six home losses came by a combined 36 points.
Put it this way: There’s a growing number of OU fans who would help load Stoops’ moving van if the day came. Too many years of promise have gone unfulfilled, and too many years have passed since the Sooners' 2000 BCS title.
“I think it’s very real,” one coach said when I asked him generally about OU's staleness. “Fans get spoiled. A lot of coaches move on to keep it new, keep energy high. Look at Urban [Meyer].”
Maybe it was just a contract leverage play, which worked, but I believed some coaches when they told me Stoops had genuine interest last winter in the Cleveland Browns job.
“I think he’s looking for other options,” a coach said Saturday.
When the topic of disappointment came up this summer, Stoops focused on the 2009 season, in which a number of players -- including Heisman-winning QB Sam Bradford -- dealt with injuries.
That’s fine -- totally fair. But he didn’t have any explanation for OU's three-loss season in 2011, and this year's team -- widely considered a contender for a playoff spot -- now has three losses, including two consecutive home defeats.
Baylor, a program moving in the opposite direction, has now beaten OU in three of the past four meetings; it was 0-20 in the series prior to 2011.
Do you need more evidence than that to prove that things have changed in the Big 12? This is no longer a league run by OU and Texas. The changing of the guard came en masse, with Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and now TCU ushering UT and OU to the periphery.
Things had gotten similarly stale in Austin, and Texas made a change.
Stoops is not on any sort of hot seat -- yet. But he is trending in that direction. So now’s the time for Stoops to make the change himself.
The school loves to boast how long the president, AD and coach have been together, and rightfully so. But all good runs come to an end. Might as well transition with some grace.
Extra points
• Someone asked me this corresponding question: If Stoops were to leave, where would Oklahoma turn? How high could it aim? AD Joe Castiglione had just started when he hired Stoops, who had never previously been a head coach. The hiring game has kind of changed. A number of ADs have been burned recently by first-time coaches, so I doubt OU would go for someone like Clemson OC Chad Morris or Alabama DC Kirby Smart. But maybe Castiglione would, searching for similar magic.
I think the two Mississippi coaches, Dan Mullen and Hugh Freeze, would make logical fits. Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez, too. Some fans would want to pry TCU's Gary Patterson or Baylor's Art Briles from their perches, but I seriously doubt either would leave. And if you want an off-the-radar name, Memphis’ Justin Fuente has some Oklahoma ties. He’s from Tulsa and started his playing career at OU before finishing at Murray State. Fuente is 13-20 at Memphis, but he's had to make a complete overhaul, and this season, he has the Tigers (6-3) bowl eligible.
• College football is tough to project (this season more than most), but here’s one thing you can take to the bank: Marcus Mariota is winning the Heisman Trophy. Oregon withstood an early test from Utah, and after a bye, it has only regular-season games against Colorado and Oregon State remaining. Even for the Ducks’ banged-up offense, both would seem to be prime opportunities for Mariota to rack up some numbers and rest in the fourth quarter. Oregon would then play Arizona State (if both win out) in the Pac-12 title game, by virtue of division records.
Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon, who has 1,501 yards and 21 TDs in nine games, is likely No. 2 right now. Gordon has remaining games against Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, and the Badgers could still reach the Big Ten title game. Gordon is not out of the hunt, but Boston College’s Andre Williams ran for 2,000 yards last season and lost to a QB.
Also: If Mississippi State continues to win, Dak Prescott will have some support. But this is Mariota’s award. Many felt as if he should have at least been a finalist last year. With Oregon in good shape for a playoff berth, it’s Mariota’s time. It makes sense. After all, he is the best player in the country.
• Every week, TCU impresses. The Frogs very rarely seem fazed, and they grind through those stretches. They breezed past a good Kansas State team 41-20 on Saturday. I’ve got QB Trevone Boykin back up at No. 3 in my Heisman Watch poll. I’m not alone in my praise of the Frogs. “TCU may win the whole thing,” a coach texted me Saturday. “The QB is phenomenal and just doesn’t turn it over. They’ll be a hard out for anyone.” One problem: Baylor won head-to-head and is still ahead in the Big 12 race. TCU has maintained an advantage in the College Football Playoff rankings, but could Baylor’s statement in Norman close the gap? If both teams win out --regardless of the “eye test” -- how could the head-to-head winner be kept out? It wouldn’t. Watch this week to see how close Baylor creeps toward TCU in the committee’s rankings. The gap was six spots last week. If the panel is really starting each week from scratch, the Bears should be very near the Frogs.
• There’s a potential road block on TCU’s schedule that isn’t getting much attention: Texas. The Frogs go to Austin on Thanksgiving night.
Texas, if you’ve sort of lost track, is improving. The Horns knocked off West Virginia 33-16 on Saturday. They’ve scored 30-plus points two straight weeks after being shut out for the first time in a decade. (Of note: Charlie Strong crowd-surfed in UT’s postgame locker room.) This team weathered the dismissals and QB David Ash’s career-ending head injury. It’s coming together, possibly just in time to wreck an in-state school’s shot at a playoff bid.
• I had been told repeatedly that Kansas AD Sheahon Zenger and the school's administration was looking for reasons to keep interim coach Clint Bowen, the Lawrence native who played at KU. He just needed a win or two. Well, Bowen has one now. The Jayhawks blew out Iowa State on Saturday, winning 34-14 to give Bowen as many Big 12 victories as his two predecessors, Charlie Weis and Turner Gill. The closing stretch of TCU, Oklahoma and Kansas State -- three teams that were in the CFP top 15 entering Saturday -- is as brutal as it gets in the league. So was this win enough? KU is playing much, much better, but does Zenger believe Bowen is ready for a Big 12 job? No matter what, expect Bowen back in 2015, either as the team's DC or the head man.
