Simply a sign of the times
Jenny Dial Creech notes Bob Stoops’ retirement telling about coaching grind.
On an otherwise uneventful Wednesday afternoon in June, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops abruptly announced his retirement. Just like that.
He wasn’t forced out. He wasn’t fired. He wasn’t the subject of any scandal or major controversy.
It was clean, simple, dramafree.
While surprising, it came and went. Coach-in-waiting Lincoln Riley was announced as the new head coach the same afternoon. Since, we’ve all waited for the
real reason. But Stoops insists there is nothing more to the story.
“I guess people have a hard time when someone just makes the decision to handle their life the way they want to — and step away in a proper fashion and hand something off that’s so good, but that really is just the way it is,” Stoops said on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Friday.
In the current landscape of college football, the pressure is higher than ever for coaches. Most are perennially on the hot seat, if not for their win-loss record then for the potential scandals that seem to lurk around every corner.
So maybe it’s true. Maybe Stoops was just done with it all.
It’s understandable. With the way things are going, you have to wonder if this will become a trend.
‘Brilliant’ choice
Stoops had a good thing going in the Sooner state. He was successful, well respected, well paid and not in danger of losing his job.
He wasn’t squeaky clean. There are a few questionable player decisions, most recently and most notably involving Joe Mixon. That will remain a blemish on Stoops’ otherwise solid résumé.
He coached the Sooners for 18 years, won one national championship and 10 conference titles. He went 190-48 overall and 101-9 in home games.
One Division I coach called Stoops’ decision to step down now “brilliant.”
“He is walking away a legend,” said the coach, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He’ll be remembered for all the good stuff, all the recruits, all the coaches who have great jobs that started with him.
“And he is leaving while everything is getting even harder on the recruiting scene. You have to hand it to him.”
This year, recruits won’t have to wait until national signing day in February to sign. There also will be an early signing period in December.
In a lot of ways, the early signing period is good because it gives players who know what they want a chance to get the hoopla out of the way.
It also changes the recruiting game, which already is one of the hardest parts of being a college football coach.
When Stoops started at Oklahoma, there weren’t 7-on-7 tournaments all summer long. Recruits weren’t waiting until national signing day to jump out of planes and announce their schools of choice. There was no Twitter or Facebook, no nonstop following of every player or potential player for signs of problems that will inevitably show up all over the internet during the round-the-clock news cycle.
Tough life
Recruiting was tough, but it wasn’t as constant as it is now. It wasn’t the circus it is now.
Stoops is a self-proclaimed family man. He is married with three children.
He also comes from a coaching family. His father suffered a heart attack on the sideline of a high school football game in Ohio while he was in his 50s and died.
Stoops, 56, has said he simply wants to live his life.
As a head football coach contending for a national title every year, that life is constant scouting, traveling, game-planning, finding new coaches, sitting in recruits’ living rooms and always focusing the majority of attention on the team and on winning. That life isn’t for everyone. And the stakes are higher than ever. There are TV deals, playoff games, loads of five-stars recruits all over the country.
In the midst of that, there are discussions about paying college players. And there are more sexual and domestic assault issues that coaches need to step up and help prevent than ever.
The business of college football is growing constantly and shows no signs of slowing down.
So while Wednesday’s news came as a surprise, it’s really not that shocking for someone to say “enough” and call it a day.
Other coaches have commented on Stoops’ departure. Nick Saban says he can’t imagine life without coaching football. Steve Spurrier said he wasn’t surprised because Stoops has always indicated he wouldn’t coach forever.
Major Applewhite and Kliff Kingsbury, who were both quarterbacks in the Big 12 and played against Stoops-coached Oklahoma teams, wished him well and praised his career. Mack Brown and Kevin Sumlin did the same.
The college football landscape looks a little different without one of its pillars.
Coaching this game has never been easy, but it’s harder than ever.
Easy call?
There might be more information coming. There might be something we don’t know yet.
Or it might really just be a move that confuses many but makes sense to Stoops.
Either way, it’s a move that will bring a lot of the issues — good and bad — that college football coaches face to the forefront.
“It’s a hard life,” the D-I coach said. “A good one if you want it, but a really hard life.
“This is definitely something that will make a lot of us think as we keep facing the challenges of doing this job and doing it well enough to win.”
Stoops’ departure seemed too simple, too easy.
Maybe that’s because it wasn’t a tough decision for him at all.