Boren on Bob
OU President David Boren reflects on the hiring of Bob Stoops.
– In November 1998, OU football was involved in its third head coaching change in 48 months. That is a plan designed to fail.
Even the removal of coaches clearly ill-suited for the job, like Howard Schnellenberger and John Blake, comes with side effects. An assembly line of coaches is not conducive to a quality program. Constant turnover leads to consistent mediocrity.
Sooner football needed to plug the flood. And Bob Stoops
did just that.
Everyone could see quickly that OU had found its man. From when his first team started playing in 1999. From when he was introduced on Dec. 1, 1998. Even from when he was first interviewed in November 1998.
It would be 18-½ years before the job came open again. In 18 seasons under Stoops, OU won nine outright Big 12 titles, reached four national championship games and won the 2000 national title. The entire athletic department was transformed, both economically and competitively.
OU president David Boren is down to his last two weeks on the job before retirement, and a few weeks ago he chatted at length with me about his role in the comings and goings of football coaches.
“I got involved very much on the Stoops hire,” Boren said.
He said he was advised to hire a first-rate consultant, “so that’s why I got Chuck Neinas. He was the first person recommended by the most people. He had found (athletic director) Joe Castiglione for us. That’s how we were first involved with Chuck. So when we first went looking for a football coach, I immediately went back to him.”
Boren said he gave Neinas one request: don’t discuss the search with anyone at OU. Not regents, not boosters, not Boren himself.
Then Boren says he broke his own rule, saying he reached out to Neinas after a friend with a family member involved with Florida’s program recommended Stoops.
“I’m not using his name because he’s an OSU supporter and I don’t want to get him in trouble,” Boren said. “So I must confess, I did call Chuck up. I violated my own rule. I said, ‘Chuck, I hear the one guy you ought to be looking at is Bob Stoops at Florida. I don’t mean to get in your business, but I just want to make sure you consider him. He said, ‘I’m already looking at him.’ Then he reported back to me that he thought Bob was the right choice.”
Consultants remain in use today, but more as communication conduits between school and candidate. Athletic directors stage their own coaching searches, based on contacts and knowledge of the industry, and Castiglione certainly qualifies. But things were a little different 20 years ago.
Boren said the 1998 candidates were pared to two – Stoops and a coach whose campus was accessible by car to Dallas, where OU officials were scheduled to interview Stoops at American Airlines’ Admiral Club at DFW Airport. In 1998, The Oklahoman reported that Stoops and thenTCU coach Dennis Franchione were OU’s prime targets. Stoops also was scheduled to interview with Iowa a day or two later.
“We had several people there,” Boren said, naming at least two former Sooner greats. “Eddie Crowder was there. Billy Vessels was there. There were some athletic supporters, three of the regents. Anyway, we interviewed Bob; I was totally convinced that he was right. I loved the fact that he was a straight shooter, all the qualities we’ve seen. I was convinced that he would be the best person. He had a real understanding and appreciation for our heritage, and the need to rebuild it quickly or we might lose it. He was really ready to take this on.”
Boren recommended that OU officials call the other candidate, quite likely Franchione, and tell him the interview was off. “There were no dissenters,” Boren said. “Everyone felt we had found the right person when we found Bob.”
Boren had sent Castiglione to join Stoops elsewhere at DFW and offer the job. But Joe C. returned with troubling news.
“He came back and said, ‘He won’t make up his mind,’” Boren said. “It was more than Iowa. Later, that became a factor. I think he was just very nervous about the fact, as a coordinator, he felt he was going to have one opportunity to jump to a head coaching position. Was this the right place? This place was obviously in trouble. Had a great past to build on, great tradition, but at the same time, it had some concerns.
“I went off, and we talked for awhile. I said, ‘You know, I understand. This is probably a pretty frightening decision to have to make. You realize you’ll have only one chance. It could be very important. He said it was. We just talked for awhile. I remember one of the points I emphasized to him, ‘We won’t be fickle. The administration is not going to be fickle. And our fan base, if you come here and you have any element of success, they’re going to give you a chance to build a great program here and have the time to do it. We’re not going to be fair-weather fans. We’re going to be committed to you and heavily invested in you and you won’t need to look over your shoulder whether you’ll be supported. You’ll be supported 100 percent.’”
Stoops apparently was convinced, despite the three coaching changes in 48 months. Boren said he received clearance from Stoops to tell the group that Stoops had accepted.
But Boren said Stoops felt compelled to keep his appointment with Iowa, where Hayden Fry was retiring, not so much to investigate the job but to inform officials from his alma mater face to face.
“We said of course,” Boren said. “To me, that was a good sign, that he was a person of integrity and loyalty, that he felt he should go back to his old school with his old coach and tell them himself.”
Boren said the agreement made Castiglione uneasy.
“Bob was on his way back to Washington, I think, and he got stranded in Atlanta,” Boren said. “But he told us, I’m going to meet with them at, let’s say, 1 o’clock. As soon as I get out, I’ll call you.”
Boren had Castiglione come to Evans Hall at 1 p.m. the next day so they could take the call together.
“Joe comes over, and it’s 1 o’clock,” Boren said. “Then it’s 2 o’clock, then it’s 3 o’clock. What we don’t know was his meeting got delayed because his plane got delayed, because of the weather. I remember Joe said, ‘I told you we shouldn’t allow that; he’s going to end up being talked into going back to Iowa. And we’re going to have lost him.’
“I said, ‘no, no, no. Just have some confidence. This is a good sign. This is a good thing. We want a coach with this kind of personal integrity. So finally, the phone rang. I said, ‘Let’s both welcome him to our program.’ Joe was like, ‘you welcome him.’ He was still a skeptic about whether Bob was going to say yes or not.
“Bob got on the phone and said, ‘I’m just calling to tell you I’m a Sooner. I’ve told Iowa.’ I kept saying, that’s just the greatest news. I was kicking Joe under the table. It was funny. But it was a joint decision by Joe and me on Bob. We both had the same impression.”
Just because it was an easy decision doesn’t mean it wasn’t an inspired decision. When Stoops retired last June, he was the longest-tenured head coach in major-college football. He’d been on the job one day longer than Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/berrytramel.