Oklahoma football: What if Stoops had stepped down in 2014?
Like most of the Oklahoma football fanbase, the end of the 2014 season was a low point for Bob Stoops’ coaching career.
The Sooners had come into the season riding high on expectations after beating Alabama the previous year in the Sugar Bowl. They began the year ranked No. 4 and in great shape to make the inaugural College Football Playoff.
Things started strong enough. Oklahoma routed Tennessee at home 34-10 and beat up on West Virgina 45-33, but a narrow loss to TCU on the road was the first sign that not all was right in Norman.
After a harder-than-expected win over Texas, the Sooners’ special teams imploded in a 31-30 loss to Kansas State. Two weeks later came one of the most embarrassing home losses of the Stoops era as Baylor humiliated Oklahoma 48-14.
Two wins brought Oklahoma back into the AP Top 25, but the infamous re-kick allowed rival Oklahoma State to steal a 38-35 victory and sealed Oklahoma’s worst Big 12 finish of the Stoops era. To top it all off an uninspired Oklahoma was routed by Clemson in the Citrus Bowl 40-6.
Dejected, Stoops considered moving on, according to the Daily Oklahoman.
“The bowl game was such a disaster, Bob really seriously considered leaving,” Boren told Barry Tramel. “Bob was so discouraged after that.”
Stoops, of course had a few years left in him. He would find the resolve to return and revive his program by leading Oklahoma to the College Football Playoff the following year.. When he did step down for good two years later it was on his own terms, handing the reigns off to protige Lincoln Riley.
However, one can only wonder what might have happened had Stoops stepped down in 2014? Who would Oklahoma have brought in as a head coach?
It’s time to go Man in the High Castle and take a look at a list of guys who may very well be walking the sidelines in Norman in an alternate universe.
Tom Herman
Yes this sounds almost icky to hear for Oklahoma fans, but Herman was a hot commodity in 2014. He was fresh off a Broyles Award as offensive coordinator at Ohio State and seen as one of the best offensive minds in the game at the time. Any search committee worth its salt would have at least had Herman’s name on it. One could say that Oklahoma was too prestigious a program to hire someone without head coaching experience, but consider the last three Oklahoma head coaches came in without it. Add to that the fact the last head football coach Oklahoma hired with previous experience at the position was Howard Schnellenberger.
How would he have fared? One would think Herman would have inherited a program in better shape than the Texas program he would get two years later. The same Sooner group had Baker Mayfield and the talent base to go to the College Football Playoff the next year, but Herman’s hire would have likely meant transfers and some sort of rebuilding. None of the current Oklahoma assistants are Herman guys and he would have wanted his own crew. That’s bound to cause some regression, but who knows how it would have turned out in the long term? Not to mention the jury is still out on Herman’s ability to lead a blueblood program. It should also be noted that just thinking about a urine chart hanging in the Switzer center gives us the willies.
Lincoln Riley
Strangely Stoops’ eventual successor seems less likely than some of the hypothetical choices back in 2014. Riley was just 30 years old at the time and only had three years-worth of coordinator experience. Still he was obviously on the Oklahoma radar as he would be brought in as the team’s offensive coordinator during this same time frame.
How would he have fared? Riley is as smart as they come and obviously looked like the man for the job in his first season in the position at Oklahoma, but it’s hard to know how ready he would have been for that job at that point. Could he have earned the trust of the Oklahoma staff? What about the players? How much did those two years under the Stoops learning tree help him grow as a coach? These are all questions that Oklahoma fans should be glad they don’t have to answer.
Kevin Sumlin
Yes, the bloom was already coming off the rose to certain degree for Sumlin at A&M, but one has to remember how highly regarded he was at one point. If nothing else, Sumlin has proven he can recruit at a high level and Oklahoma administrators would have vividly remembered the Aggies thrashing Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl just a couple years prior.
How would he have fared? Without being too negative on Sumlin, the answer looks fairly bleak. There’s a reason Texas A&M backed a money truck up to Jimbo Fisher’s door. Which brings us to our next candidate.
Jimbo Fisher
Yes the Sooners would have at least given a thought to brining in Fisher, whose team was coming off back-to-back ACC titles and a national championship just a year prior. Fisher was well known for flirting with other programs in the offseason, but the honeymoon phase may have still been a little strong to lure him away from Tallahassee. Plus, Fisher comes with a little more drama than Joe Castiglione would probably wanted to stomach.
How would he have fared? Fisher is just 25-11 in the past three years and some think his stock is falling, but one has to think that an offensive brain like his could have found fun ways to use Baker Mayfield. Plus, there’s no doubting that he and his staff can recruit with the best of them. Longtime Fisher assistant Tim Brewster could do some major damage on the loose recruiting for Oklahoma in Texas. Still, Oklahoma was not far off a clean sweep of Fisher’s Florida State teams in a home-and-home series. This one just doesn’t feel right at all.
Mike Leach
The Mad Pirate wouldn’t have been an ideal fit for Oklahoma – or would he? Leach obviously knows the Big 12 and the program as a former offensive coordinator for the Sooners. He could have come in without a ton of staff turnover as he himself resides in the Stoops coaching tree. Many around college football have wondered what kind of damage Leach could do a program like Oklahoma’s name brand, facilities and resources at his disposal.
How would he have fared? Mike Leach coaching Baker Mayfield and Sterling Shephard would have been fun to watch, but it’s not like Riley didn’t do a good enough job of it himself. The real question would have been Leach’s ability to adapt to coaching a big-time program. We’re pretty sure Oklahoma is still better off with the way things went down, but one can only imagine how much more fun the press conferences would be.
Josh Heupel
This one is hard, because Heupel was relieved of his offensive coordinator duties at Oklahoma in the same offseason. That obviously makes this an unlikely hire, but just hypothetically, had Stoops say stepped down the day after the Russell Athletic Bowl, Heupel would have to be a name on the list. He ran some successful offenses at Oklahoma, is now a head coach a powerful Group of 5 program in UCF and of course has a special place in Sooner lore as the last OU quarterback to lead the team to a national championship.
How would he have fared? There were some great highs during Heupel’s time as offensive coordinator at Oklahoma. He came up with the game plan that torched Alabama in the 2013 Sugar Bowl, but the program was also in a bit of a rut at the time. Would a youthful Heupel have been get things going back in the right direction? We’re giving it 50-50 odds.
Mike Stoops
Wait. Stop booing. Just put the keyboard down and hear us out on this one. Mike Stoops is a member of his brother’s coaching tree and a former head coach himself. Though he is the scourge of a good chunk of the fanbase, it’s hard to argue that he wouldn’t have gotten a look as possibly the most qualified assistant resume-wise on the staff at the time.
How would he have fared? There’s little argument among OU fans that the Sooners had the best Stoops brother for the job already. Not saying Mike would have been a disaster by any means, but the program probably wouldn’t have found its way back into prominence the way it has.
Kevin Wilson
Another longshot, but Wilson was another former Stoops assistant who boasted head coaching experience. He was smack-dab in the middle of his rebuilding job at Indiana and hadn’t really done anything that would have wowed any search committees yet, but he was a familiar name and that goes a long way.
How would he have fared? Wilson was the architect of some of the deadliest Oklahoma offenses in school history. He also took the Hoosiers to a pair of bowl games – no small feat by any means, but just like most of these names, you have to ask yourself: “Do you think Oklahoma could possibly have been any better with Wilson at the helm than the were with Stoops?” The answer is a flat no.
Jay Norvell
A longtime assistant coach, trusted ally of the Stoops family and fellow member of the Hayden Fry coaching tree, Norvell is an interesting choice. Norvell understood the Oklahoma program after spending the previous six years as an assistant, including three as a co-offensive coordinator. He was a talented recruiter and had the other assistants’ respect. If Oklahoma was going to make an internal hire, he would have at least gotten an interview.
How would he have fared? Norvel has since gone on to become the head coach at Nevada. While the Wolfpack struggled last year to a 3-9 record, he has an extensive rebuilding job ahead of him with that program. He would have inherited talent at Oklahoma and the staff turnover would have been minimal.
Steve Spurrier
Yes he would have been well past his prime and probably been a band aid solution, but why not give The Old Ball Coach a chance? Though 2014 was a down year, he had managed to win 11 games in each of the previous three seasons at South Carolina, including a No. 4 finish in the AP Poll in 2013. As Stoops’ mentor, there’s a natural connection between the coach and the Oklahoma program.
How would he have fared? Baker Mayfield in the Fun and Gun could have brought a lot of smiles to a lot of people’s faces. Spurrier has a natural cockiness and bravado that would have been a great compliment to Mayfield’s. Even if they hadn’t managed to win a Big 12 title together, they could have always gone on the road and challenged as heels for the WWE Tag Team Titles.
Les Miles
The days already kind of felt numbered for Miles at LSU in 2014. He was coming off an 8-5 record and just a 4-4 mark in conference play. Speculation had run wild for years that he would eventually leave the Tigers including rampant rumors involving the Michigan job. This really seems like a longshot, as the proud Sooners program wouldn’t be likely to take a former Oklahoma State head coach.
How would he have fared? You have to feel like there’s a reason Miles isn’t coaching anymore with all the jobs that have been open in the past two years. Yes, he’s proven himself on the sideline with a National Championship, but his teams notoriously underachieved through most of his tenure at LSU. That probably wouldn’t have gone over well in Oklahoma. On a scale of John Blake to Bob Stoops, this one’s a Gary Gibbs at best.
Chad Morris
The current SMU head coach and former Clemson offensive coordinator had a lot of things you would look for in an Oklahoma head coach. He had Oklahoma recruiting ties from his time with Tulsa and as a former Texas high school football coach, Morris would have been a force when it came to getting top-flight players to Oklahoma.
How would he have fared? Morris was a former head coach at Lake Travis High School and though he never directly coached Mayfield, he built the system the Heisman Trophy winner ran in high school. There would have been a built-in chemistry between the two that could have been fun to watch. Morris turned around a bad SMU program and took the Mustangs to a bowl game in just three years. Now, he faces a similar rebuild in Arkansas. Reading through this, list Oklahoma could have done a lot worse than Morris in our alternate version of reality.
Kirby Smart
Oklahoma hiring a bright-minded top-notch defensive coordinator from a tradition-rich SEC school? Nah, that’ll never happen. Seriously though, there are a lot of similarities between Smart and Stoops, something I am sure would have been noticed by the Oklahoma powers that be. Smart learned from the best there is in today’s college football game and was clearly ready for a head coaching job as he would prove this past season.
How would he have fared? Smart would have found defense a lot harder to play in the Big 12, but he’s a talented recruiter and game manager. The Sooners would probably would have fielded a pretty stout defense by now. One might think the offense would have been in need of an overhaul, but he would have come in with a backfield that included Joe Mixon, Rodney Anderson and Samaje Perine all already on the roster. That is comparable to the bevy of backfield talent that carried the Bulldogs to the National Championship game a year ago.