On Tuesday, legendary Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops, was inducted into college football most exclusive club honoring a lifetime of achievement in college football.
Stoops was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in an induction ceremony held in Las Vegas during the annual National Football Foundation Awards Dinner.
The winningest head coach in the storied history of Oklahoma football, with 190 wins, Stoops joins three other legendary Sooner coaches in the Hall of Fame. Bennie Owen, Bud Wilkinson and Barry Switzer — all with more than 100 wins in the Oklahoma coaching career — were previous inductees.
Stoops coached for 18 seasons at Oklahoma and won a national championship in just his second season after inheriting a team that had gone a combined 12-24 in the three years before. In his first season in Norman, he directed the Sooners to a 7-5 record and their first bowl game since 1994. In season number two, Oklahoma went undefeated and won its seventh national title.
Thank you to all my players, my guys! Love you! https://t.co/KtubckuPXM
— Bob Stoops (@CoachBobStoops) December 8, 2021
The funny thing was, as athletic director Joe Castiglione recalls, after he had offered the head-coaching job to Stoops, who was at the time the defensive coordinator for the Florida Gators under head coach and longtime Stoops supporter, friend and mentor Steve Spurrier, Castiglione was worried Stoops might not take it and opt instead for the job opening at his alma mater, Iowa.
And then. less than 24 hours after accepting the job, as he was being introduced at OU as the new head coach, Stoops started to have buyer’s remorse. He was asking himself, “What the hell am I doing,” he recalled. “Wow. It was all a blur.”
Stoops also tells the story that after a couple of weeks on the new job in Norman, he flew back to Florida for the Christmas holidays. A close friend of his picked him up at the airport and asked him how things were going. He said to his friend, “I’ve ruined my life.” It was just so overwhelming, he said.
Oklahoma's Bob Stoops Rode Confidence Into the College Football Hall of Fame https://t.co/Rf0tOedhVt via @johnehoover
— John E. Hoover 🌮 (@johnehoover) December 8, 2021
In retrospect, Stoops said this past week, “Obviously I didn’t ruin my life. It was the best thing that’s happened to me. You just got to let it grow on you.” I’m sure he will be sharing that same story and advice, if he hasn’t already done so, with new OU head coach Brent Venables.
One man who wasn’t having second thoughts over the Stoops’ hire was Castiglione. He knew he had the right guy for the job. And, as it turned out, the OU athletic director may have exceeded even his own expectations.
The new College Football Hall of Fame inductee has been one of the busiest men on the planet the past two weeks.
Right after the news broke that Lincoln Riley was leaving, Stoops came out of retirement and agreed to serve as interim head coach and coach Oklahoma in what will be the Sooners’ 23 consecutive postseason bowl, which this season will be Dec. 29 at the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio against Oregon, the Pac-12 runner-up.
Stoops met with the current OU players the day after the Riley announcement and immediately hit the recruiting trail. And last Friday and Saturday he was in Indianapolis with the FOX “Big Noon Kickoff” pre- and post-game crew doing the Big Ten Championship game.
He wasn’t able to make the welcoming ceremony for Venables, his former assistant and defensive coordinator because he was in Las Vegas for his Hall of Fame induction.
Asked a week ago at the Oklahoma press conference following the Riley announcement how he liked getting back in the game, Stoops said, “My wife probably likes it because it gets me out of the house.”
We’ve got news for the former OU head coach. his wife, Carol, isn’t the only one who likes it.