Stoops’ TV gig should be fun for all
Bob Stoops doesn’t plan to be critical. Doesn’t plan to assume the role of hatchet man on Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff.
Of course, if something’s real obvious, if a coach has stepped into a pile of poop, Stoops will have to respond.
“Like kicking the ball twice to Tyreek Hill,” Stoops said. “Gotta call it out.”
Stoops making fun of himself — like the decision to re-punt to OSU’s speedster that cost the Sooners 2014 Bedlam — is gold. If Stoops is as good on television as he is talking about being on television, he’ll be more than fine as Urban Meyer’s successor on Fox’s college football pregame show.
More than four years after Stoops’ stunning retirement from OU, he’s back in the college game. This time, as a broadcaster.
This is Stoops’ final weekend off before the gridiron game beckons. Stoops will debut Thursday night in Minneapolis, where Minnesota hosts Ohio State. The next day, he hops over to Madison, Wisconsin, to prep for Wisconsin-Penn State. The next week, it’s Oregon at Ohio State. The week after, it’s home in Norman for OU-Nebraska. Week 4, Chicago’s Soldier Field, for Wisconsin-Notre Dame.
Big Game Bob? Big Ten Bob is more like it.
“I got some of my old Big Ten brethren to watch,” Stoops said. “Lot of good stadiums. Should be fun.”
Forty-two years ago, Stoops debuted as a redshirt freshman safety for Iowa, opening the 1979 season at OU.
“Shoot, I’ve always watched football. Never NOT kept up with it. So I understand what’s going on. I’ve kept myself always paying attention to what’s going on out there.” Former OU coach Bob Stoops
Twenty years later, Owen Field became his coaching home as he rebuilt Oklahoma football into a national power.
A familiar voice to most college football fans, a friendly voice to the Sooners.
Stoops said he's already warned Fox: “When it comes to Lincoln Riley and OU, I'm a homer. Don't expect me to be anything but.”
But expect Stoops to be more engaging and interesting than he was in the back half of his OU days. The early Stoops was savvy and saucy. But he grew more guarded as protector of the Sooner program.
Some of those walls now have tumbled down.
“Everybody's seen me in a little bit different light, right?” Stoops said of his retirement days. “So I can be a little more relaxed, have some fun with it.
“Give a coach's perspective. Their interest in me is that. Coach's perspective. No one else has that.”
Stoops said that while coaching, he never thought about a potential television career, which is hard to believe, since it was much speculated.
And upon retirement, Stoops said, TV suitors sought him every year.
“When I first was asked,” Stoops said, “I said, ‘Look, obviously, what I get paid isn't comparable to what I got paid.' In a non-jerky way, I told ‘em, ‘If I was interested in working every weekend, I had a pretty good job.'
“True to my word, I wanted my own time and space. Wasn't going to let anything take it.”
Stoops enjoyed being on the golf course at 11 a.m. many a day. But he said his golf game wasn't good enough to sustain his interest. “If I was shooting even par, I'd probably still be out there.”
Stoops said he hasn't studied other studio-show coaches. Meyer, Lou Holtz, Lee Corso, Mack Brown, Dave Wannstedt. Lots of college coaches have tried it.
“Want it to be just me,” Stoops said. “Don't want to copy anybody. Have some fun with it.”
Stoops said he'll have to be studious and learn names. Avoid the trap of just calling players by their number, a coaching habit.
But watching film, watching a team, watching a game, and knowing immediately what's happening and what's important? That will come easy.
“Shoot, I've always watched football,” Stoops said. “Never NOT kept up with it. So I understand what's going on. I've kept myself always paying attention to what's going on out there.”
Stoops' son, Drake, is an OU receiver, so making it back for Sooner night games is a priority. After the first four weeks, the Big Noon Kickoff probably will return to Los Angeles studios. Private aircraft comes in handy.
Stoops' partners on the show include former Southern Cal stars Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush. Both shined in the 2004 national championship game, when the Trojans routed OU 55-19.
“Great guys,” Stoops calls them. “Everybody's super people to be around. Fun people. Obviously, bright people. Really easy and fun to be around.
“They want the show to be that. The fun interactions. More a bunch of guys having fun about the games.”
Stoops said Bush and Leinart have been magnanimous about that Orange Bowl.
“If I get frisky on something, they'll bring it up,” Stoops said. “‘Coach, you do remember?' ‘Oh yeah, I'll never forget.'”
Despite his comfort and confidence, Stoops remains a television novice.
He chuckles about his first conference call after news broke of the OU/ Texas migration to the Southeastern Conference.
Show host Rob Stone was bummed out and Stoops couldn't figure out why.
Stone had to explain to Stoops that the decision meant Fox would lose contractual ties to the Sooners and Longhorns.
“Once I realized that, I am sensitive to it,” Stoops said. “Everybody's got their job to do. People at OU are doing theirs, people at Fox and every other network are doing theirs. It's the way business goes.”
And this is a new business for Stoops. Cavorting with Trojans. Learning names instead of numbers. Hanging out in his college haunts of the Big Ten. Scrambling back from LA for OU night games.
Should be fun for Stoops. Should be fun for us all.
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 FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.