Post-game article

[Snrinhouston]

I'm so god damn tired of the question, "who you gonna get to replace Stoops?"

I don't know. And it's not my job to know. That's where Castiglione is supposed to earn his large paycheck.

Here's what I do know.

1. The standard of OU football has been to compete for National Championships. We are not Colorado State, Minnesota, or Kansas.
2. The past six years of data shows that OU has not been in serious contention for a national title.
3. OU either needs to adjust its standard or get rid of Stoops.

[SoonerSince72]

Was wondering the same.

Well you may have missed my point..... I said who are you going to get.... would love to know... everyone is a football expert right? Emotions taken out, my question stands.... but to those who say Stoops should be gone.... I am not focusing on the HC but assistants.... who are a problem on their own.... boomer! From a two time grad at OU.

[Soonerjeepman]

SS72,
Your post was talking about getting a current HC to come to OU. Stoops was an assistant and unkown but OU took a chance. Not saying someone coming in will do a great job, BUT the program is in as good or better place than it was when Stoops came in. Why would any coach be afraid of OU if they let Stoops go? He was here 16 years, got paid great money...won his only NC in his 2nd year..but for the last 14 hasn't done that. Yes, he got OU to a couple of more..but didn't win them.

I don't think OU would go 5 years in the tank. Stoops has lost his fire. Something needs to change.

[birddog]

At this point stoops is a friggin figurehead and bringing in talented assistants would help out quite a bit. It's obvious he's not going to be Oklahoma successful again til he gets Coaches beneath him that haven't already burned out or don't have enough pride to avoid humiliation. This game alone should make everyone question the current staffs competence. A defense this bad should not only scare recruits but scare them from being subjected to Mike stoops alcohol induced schemes. This is nowhere close to the Oklahoma team I love and will never shun. For the love of bud please let us see a team we are proud of once again, and soon!

[SoonerMarkVA]

At this point stoops is a friggin figurehead and bringing in talented assistants would help out quite a bit. It's obvious he's not going to be Oklahoma successful again til he gets Coaches beneath him that haven't already burned out or don't have enough pride to avoid humiliation. This game alone should make everyone question the current staffs competence. A defense this bad should not only scare recruits but scare them from being subjected to Mike stoops alcohol induced schemes. This is nowhere close to the Oklahoma team I love and will never shun. For the love of bud please let us see a team we are proud of once again, and soon!

I seriously doubt he is. We bring in different coaches throughout his tenure, and shockingly they all seem to converge on similar ideas and get similar results. I think Stoops is too much in control of things and desperately needs to back off and let his assistants do their jobs. The barrel is spoiled now, and there's no doubt we need new OC and DC, and to get rid of some guys who are clearly not getting it done in their position duties (my list is BJW, Kish, Norvell, and probably Bedenbaugh). But even if Stoops does that, and then insists the new guys work within the framework he demands, nothing's going to change. It'd be a step *up* if he truly would become a figurehead after cleaning house.

[OUmillenium]

I seriously doubt he is. We bring in different coaches throughout his tenure, and shockingly they all seem to converge on similar ideas and get similar results. I think Stoops is too much in control of things and desperately needs to back off and let his assistants do their jobs. The barrel is spoiled now, and there's no doubt we need new OC and DC, and to get rid of some guys who are clearly not getting it done in their position duties (my list is BJW, Kish, Norvell, and probably Bedenbaugh). But even if Stoops does that, and then insists the new guys work within the framework he demands, nothing's going to change. It'd be a step *up* if he truly would become a figurehead after cleaning house.

This has been the talk around many households here for quite some time. Mangino, Long, and Wilson seem to be not so lame as we once thought.

[SoonerBBall]

You guys are so full of ****.

You act like Bob's hiring was some act of calculated genius by Castiglione. It was a good pick on the surface but he got lucky and Bob turned out to be an amazing pick. To act like it is easy to do is foolish and ignorant. Castiglione also hired Capel trying to recreate his football success in basketball. How well did that go?

[Jack T.]

Well you may have missed my point..... I said who are you going to get.... would love to know... everyone is a football expert right? Emotions taken out, my question stands.... but to those who say Stoops should be gone.... I am not focusing on the HC but assistants.... who are a problem on their own.... boomer! From a two time grad at OU.

You were talking about HC. . .so how about we buy Snyder or Meyer? Heck, Les sold his soul to the devil in return for wins, so he might as well lose his soul working for Oklahoma instead of somebody else.

I'm sure you can give us 100 reasons why neither of those will work, which means you think that we have the absolute best coach available to us right now. Which is fine. . .just say so and be done with it.

[SoonerorLater]

Well you may have missed my point..... I said who are you going to get.... would love to know... everyone is a football expert right? Emotions taken out, my question stands.... but to those who say Stoops should be gone.... I am not focusing on the HC but assistants.... who are a problem on their own.... boomer! From a two time grad at OU.

No, everybody here isn't an expert but Joe C is supposed to be one in the ways of evaluating and hiring coaches. It's hard to look at what we see on the field and have confidence that Bob Stoops will be able to correct the problems. After listening to some of his comments I'm not sure he knows exactly where all the problems lie. Even if he did I doubt he would be willing to do all that is needed to correct the problems if it meant cleaning house.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

I'm so god damn tired of the question, "who you gonna get to replace Stoops?"

I don't know. And it's not my job to know. That's where Castiglione is supposed to earn his large paycheck.

Here's what I do know.

1. The standard of OU football has been to compete for National Championships. We are not Colorado State, Minnesota, or Kansas.
2. The past six years of data shows that OU has not been in serious contention for a national title.
3. OU either needs to adjust its standard or get rid of Stoops.

And here is my counterargument to that - Tom Osborne. The guy went what 20 years before his first MNC? And then he won 3 of them. What you have to understand is that Stoops is a good coach at a good school. All it takes is one great on the field recruiting class to get you back to the top.

[SoonerorLater]

And here is my counterargument to that - Tom Osborne. The guy went what 20 years before his first MNC? And then he won 3 of them. What you have to understand is that Stoops is a good coach at a good school. All it takes is one great on the field recruiting class to get you back to the top.

IMO there really isn't an equivalency with Osborne and what we are now seeing on the field with OU. Osborne never lost more than 3 games in a season (in 25 years), never went as long as Stoops without being in the NC hunt and just generally never let the Nebraska program get into a generalized funk or downtrend.

Here's an interesting stat

59 - 19

That is Frank Solich's record at Nebraska for the six years after he took over for Osborne. Decent but unimpressive.

-----------
59 - 20......

Bob Stoops record over the last six years. To make matters worse we seem to be downtrending. I'm not sure what kind of time frame people are looking at before they feel a coaching change needs to be made. I just don't believe that Bob Stoops is willing or able to make the hard decisions that need to be made. Like it or not the guys that seem to succeed are the maniacally driven SOB's that live, eat and breathe football every waking second, that is whenever they do sleep.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

Switzer almost got fired in 83 after 3 8-4 seasons.

There are lots of coaches who have delivered national titles after long dry spells - Mack Brown, Gene Stallings, Fulmer, Lloyd Carr, Bobby Bowden (#1 in 1980 didn't win it until 93), LaVell Edwards, Don James, Vince Dooley

[SicEmBaylor]

Switzer almost got fired in 83 after 3 8-4 seasons.

There are lots of coaches who have delivered national titles after long dry spells - Mack Brown, Gene Stallings, Fulmer, Lloyd Carr, Bobby Bowden (#1 in 1980 didn't win it until 93), LaVell Edwards, Don James, Vince Dooley

It was a different era back then. There were no BCS bowls to play for; there was no clear national championship winner; there was no playoff. A modern coach at a program like OU can't survive on the kind of lean seasons that past great coaches had.

[cherokeebrewer]

Sometimes when I see Bob Stoops, I want to ask...Who are you and what have you done with our coach?

[Piware]

To all the Bob haters, who are you going to hire????? Harbaugh? Hes taken.. Muschamp? Already proved hes not a HC... Who?? Be careful what you wish for... Heupel was a very wrong decision, Norvell needs to go, those are clearly issues.... BJW needs to go... and Mike needs to hire a coach for the safeties to be the D coordinator but why in the hell would get rid of Bob? Name another HC who is going to to do what, maybe win five games next year or nine games the next two years if he's lucky?

There seen to be a lot of "fans" on here who are longing for a return of the Gibbs/Blake/Smellyburger years. Remember when Nebraska fired Solich, then Pellini for 9 win seasons, Rocky Top ran Phil Fulmer off when their fans screamed for change, etc? I did not like the Josh decision when he became the OC and thought he did better on the sidelines as the QB coach. Hunch has been confirmed all season and Bob has made other shaky decisions about staffing that made me cringe. I am, however, pretty disappointed with the vitriol and nasty remarks about his salary, cashing his check, etc. He can turn this around so let him do it - if he can't, then it's time to get out the pitchforks.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

It was a different era back then. There were no BCS bowls to play for; there was no clear national championship winner; there was no playoff. A modern coach at a program like OU can't survive on the kind of lean seasons that past great coaches had.

While I agree they can't survive, I think you are missing my point. Football is cyclical. Right now, recruiting Texas is like trying to draw an inside straight for teams like OU and Texas. The guys that we have traditionally went after that were really good 10 years ago are flaming out left and right. At some point that trend is going to change. The question is WHEN it changes do you have a coach that can maximize the talent that you have when it changes. Given how rare it is to find quality college HCs, I think those calling for Stoops' head are trying to shoot the moon with the King of Spades.

[EatLeadCommie]

Bob's going to get his chance to turn it around if he wants it. Even if some of us think it's time for him to step down, nobody is under the impression that he will be forced out. But if he doesn't make any changes-- and I mean changes at nearly every level on both sides of the ball-- then he is just being obstinate and it's time to pull the plug on his time here at OU.

[pappy]

I'm not saying Bob needs to go...I'm saying his coordinators need to go, but since it was brought up if Bob walked away. My first call would be to Scott Frost at Oregon.

[TFSooner]

I'm not saying Bob needs to go...I'm saying his coordinators need to go, but since it was brought up if Bob walked away. My first call would be to Scott Frost at Oregon.

My first call would be to nearly double Art Briles' salary and get his entire staff (or most of it, I would keep Monty and Bedenbaugh) to OU pronto. But that's just me.

[Texas Golfer]

OU used to be able to compete for the star players in Texas when it was only UT and A&M to compete against. Now, throw in Baylor and TCU who are getting many of them and it's not as easy.

One of the things that appears to be going against Stoops is, where most teams take a couple of years to turn a program around, Stoops took a team that didn't have a winning season in the previous 5 years and went 7-5 his first year and 13-0 and a national championship his second. Expectations became so high that winning 8 games in his worst years and averaging over 10 wins a season isn't good enough. We can't lose more than one game and have to be playing for the national championship or the season is a failure.

Fulmer at Tennessee went 152-52 and was fired. Since then, Tennessee has gone 34-40. Be careful of what you wish for.