Firing Stoops can’t hurt

LNORMAN incoln Riley wanted it to work. You know he did. You know he wanted Mike Stoops to succeed as OU’s defensive coordinator.

The next-to-last thing Riley wanted was to fire the brother of the man who set up Riley with the job of a lifetime.

The last thing Riley wanted to do was give up 48 points to a Texas offense that isn’t exactly Patrick Mahomes on a hot night in Lubbock.

And so Riley on Sunday did what he didn’t want to do and what a classy program never is supposed to do. Pink slips in mid-season are low rent on the college level.

But Riley no doubt felt the psychological damage done in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday had crossed the line of no return. An OK Longhorn offense toyed with the Sooners. This wasn’t like that 66-59 game at Texas Tech two seasons ago, when Mahomes and Baker Mayfield put on a show for the ages and now are the NFL’s problem.

This was an inexplicable mismatch. This was Texas scoring six touchdowns and kicking two field goals on the 10 possessions in which it tried to score. Twice in the fourth quarter, the Longhorns were content to just run clock and squash comeback hopes. When the Sooners scored quickly, UT coach Tom Herman got serious again.

To Stoops’ credit, OU got another stop. But

with the game tied and an epic rally within reach of the Sooners, Texas chewed up the Sooner defense again, and Cameron Dicker kicked a game-winning field goal with nine seconds left.

The whole atmosphere around Stoops had become untenable. The sane fans were ready to join the crazies and riot in the streets. The stress had seemed to reach the squad. Last week, Riley clearly was agitated at all the talk about defensive futility, even limiting interviews with defensive players. Saturday, linebacker Curtis Bolton apparently went cuckoo at halftime, bypassing the OU locker room to take the famed rampart all the way out into the fair, only to be pulled back by teammates. Must have been a sight for the ages.

Riley clearly was torn. Last season, Mike Stoops was not nearly as ineffective as his critics claimed. The defense had its moments, particularly against Ohio State and TCU twice. It also had

Iowa State, Bedlam and Georgia, and an offense for the ages didn’t reach the national championship game.

Now the Sooners seem to have the same kind of offense but a defense that appears much worse. And Riley, having been anointed by Bob Stoops, finally felt compelled to make a change.

An OU source said it had been gently suggested over the years that perhaps a change was needed at defensive coordinator, but Bob Stoops would not consider firing his brother. That’s admirable. And problematic, and why nepotism has no place there, here or anywhere other than a family business.

Still, mid-season firings are bad form. You preach team, team, team. Family, family, family. Then you fire someone because Texas embarrassed one side of the Sooner ball. That’s no way to build morale or confidence or trust.

Will firing Mike Stoops save the OU season

or salvage the Sooner defense? Probably not. But it also can’t hurt. Not the defensive performance, at least.

This wasn’t working. Not working at all. The old argument that OU couldn’t produce a great (or good) defense because of the Big 12’s offensive culture has merit. But that merit explains why OU’s defense never could approach Alabama’s or LSU’s or Clemson’s.

It never explained how the Sooners could have a worse defense than Iowa State. Much worse, actually, last season. Comparisons in the Big 12 are apples to apples. After three conference games, the Sooners are headed for the bottom of most defensive statistics, including the one that matters most.

In 35 opponents’ possessions in the three Big 12 games, the Sooners allowed 13 touchdowns and six field goals. That’s an efficiency percentage of .457. Kansas’ defense finished last in 2017, at .458.

I don’t know why things went so south. I think Mike Stoops knows defense. He’s proven he can coordinate championship defenses. But we’re getting further and further from those glory days. The encouraging performances were getting fewer and fewer.

And when Texas carved up the Sooners on Saturday in the Cotton Bowl, it became clear that Stoops’ time was nearing an end. I didn’t think it would be Sunday; the Sooners aren’t a quick-triggertype organization.

But Stoops was jettisoned not only because the defense was so bad, but because the offense was so good. OU won’t always have a Kyler Murray or Baker Mayfield to win 63-33 and 66-59 games. In the last seven games, the Sooners have lost showdowns that were tied 45-45 with 10 seconds left in the game. Georgia won 54-48 in double overtime, Texas won 48-45 in regulation.

Riley must have decided that while firing Stoops might not help, there’s no way it could hurt.