Bob Stoops says he’s done coaching at college or pro level
By Chip Rouse
At the time he announced his surprise retirement at the beginning of June, Bob Stoops told us he did not plan to coach anywhere else.
The former Oklahoma head coach reaffirmed his earlier pronouncement at a meeting in Atlanta earlier this week. Speaking at the Atlanta Touchdown Club, Stoops said he meant it when he said it the first time: He is done coaching.
“I will say, regardless of what you might hear out there in the papers, if I intended again to coach, that would have been part of my (retirement) statement,” Stoops said and was reported by Ryan Aber of the Oklahoma City Oklahoman on Tuesday.
“You won’t see me on a college sideline or a pro sideline,” he said. “A lot of people act like they know, and there will be more than a few jobs out there. But that isn’t at all what I’m looking to do.”
As a longtime loyal and passionate Sooner fan, I selfishly would not want Stoops to coach at any other college program. I would think that would be the desire of other Sooner fans as well, especially the diehard ones.
Eighteen seasons is an abnormally long coaching tenure at one institution, and I can understand why Stoops would feel that the right time had come to make a change. He has had a wildly successful coaching run at Oklahoma. He left as the winningest coach in Sooner football history and with the program at the top of its game. And the program is still going strong — thanks to Stoops superlative leadership and football prowess.
Very few head coaches are allowed the opportunity to step down at the top of their game. The Sooners have had some outstanding head football coaches in their illustrious history, and Stoops may be the only one who was able to step aside on his own volition.
I, for one, am delighted to know that Stoops was able to spend his entire head-coaching career coaching the Oklahoma Sooners and feel personally fulfilled doing so.
He already owns the most wins of any Oklahoma head coach, and I wouldn’t be surprised if history ultimately recognizes Bob Stoops as the greatest. That’s saying something at a football institution with the fame and fortune of the University of Oklahoma.