Oklahoma football: Bob Stoops was greatly bothered by recent personnel incidents

When Bob Stoops announced on June 7 that he was retiring after 18 seasons on the sidelines as head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners, he was quick to diffuse rumors that the sudden disclosure had something to do with his health.

In the press conference announcing his decision and introducing Lincoln Riley as the 22nd head coach of Oklahoma Sooner football, Stoops said, “I understand there has been some speculation about my health. My health was not the deciding factor in this decision, and I’ve had no incidents that would prevent me coaching.”

Personal health may not have entered into his decision to retire, but there is every reason to believe that OU’s head coach for the past 18 seasons had grown sick of the criticism and second guessing he has received for his handling of off-the-field player issues and for his penchant for standing behind his players and affording second chances in certain circumstances.

The truth is, you can’t lead an organization with as many young, college-aged male athletes for as long as Stoops did without encountering some incidents of bad behavior and poor judgments along the way. And in college football —  and college athletics in general, for that matter — the organization is in a constant state of evolution, with new players coming in and others moving on.

“We all deal with young people that are still growing, maturing, learning,” Stoops told the Oklahoma City Oklahoman  a couple of years ago. “Guide’em. Teach’em. Direct’em.”

“Those are promises Stoops made not only to the players, but also to families,” wrote Oklahoman sports columnist Jenni Carlson in an article last week.

Stoops did not necessarily treat the off-the-field incident several years ago involving star running back Joe Mixon any differently than he had with other players in the past. Mixon, a five-star, highly touted prospect from Northern California, punched an OU female student in the face. The force of the blow was severe enough to break several bones in her face. The altercation occurred prior to the start of the fall semester in August 2014, before Mixon had played one down of football at Oklahoma.

“We all deal with young people that are still growing, maturing, learning…It’s hard to give up on these young men.” –Former Sooner head coach Bob Stoops

Mixon was suspended by Stoops for one year as a result of the incident and later required to perform 100 hours of community service. Stoops reinstated Mixon on the team for the 2015 season, but there was wide fallout, both inside and outside of the Sooner Nation, for allowing him to return and not dismissing him from the team.

This criticism continued for most all of Mixon’s two seasons playing for the Sooners. and blew up all over again after a surveillance video of the incident, showing disturbing images of the physical altercation, became public last December.

Aside from a minor incident when Mixon tore up a parking ticket in front of a police officer (and for which he was suspended for one game), he did nothing during the 2015 or 2016 seasons to jeopardize his second-chance opportunity.

About the same time that the Mixon video showing him punching the female student became public, it was revealed by the news media that Biletnikoff Award winner and 2016 Heisman finalist Dede Westbrook had been arrested twice previously — although several years before he arrived in Norman – on domestic assault charges involving the mother of his two children.

And then, in late January, came the news that OU’s starting quarterback and two-time Heisman finalist Baker Mayfield had been arrested in Fayetteville, Ark., and charged with public intoxication, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and fleeing from a police officer.

It was not that Stoops had not encountered and dealt with player off-the-field issues before – remember that All-American wide receiver Ryan Broyles and All-Big 12 defensive lineman Dusty Dvoracek were both suspended from the team at different times for their off-the-field misconduct.

Stoops also has shown that he is not opposed to taking dire disciplinary actions against top players. In 2006, he dismissed top-recruit and starting quarterback Rhett Bomar and another offensive player from the team when it was learned that the two had violated NCAA rules by accepting payment from a local car dealership in excess of the time they actually worked.

Highly touted wide-receiver Trey Metoyer was also removed from the team in 2014 after a couple of arrests for indecent exposure.

But times are much different today with respect to public tolerance of unlawful acts and public misconduct than they were 10 to 18 years ago, and especially when it concerns violence toward women.

The public scrutiny and decreasing tolerance toward college athletes breaking the law and acting disorderly and violently in public is much higher today than it was even five years ago – largely because there seems to be much higher incidents of this type of behavior being reported. Along with the increasing incidents comes with the expectation of appropriate consequences in response to the actions.

“It’s hard to give up on these young men,” Stoops said shortly after the Mixon video was made public. “I go into their homes and talk to their families and talk about their opportunities to grow at Oklahoma.”

I don’t believe Bob Stoops would ever openly admit it, but am hard-pressed to believe he hasn’t grown tired and sickened of having his leadership and judgment questioned, let alone his integrity, on how he deals with his players and why he makes the decisions he does.

There comes a time when you have to question: Is it really worth it any more.

And when you’ve been doing it at the same place, for as many years and with as much success as Bob Stoops and the Sooners have had, it’s not hard to understand why he came to the decision that now is the time to move on, while you’re still standing on the high ground.