link John E. Hoover: It’s time for Bob Stoops to goORLANDO, Fla. — It’s not a popular topic, but it needs to be said.
It’s time for Bob Stoops to go.
It’s time for Joe Castiglione to find that Little Black Book that he tucked away years ago in some drawer, the one with all the compelling names of men he thinks might be good candidates to take over as head football coach at Oklahoma, and start formulating a plan.
Castiglione won’t fire Stoops, of course. He can’t.
How can you fire a man who has done so much for a university, a man who’s won a national championship, filled a trophy case, become the program’s all-time wins king, rebuilt and now — soon, hopefully — rebuilt again a stadium, resuscitated a proud program and, frankly, buoyed an entire athletic department?
You can’t.
But Monday — a miserable and embarrassing 40-6 loss to Clemson in the Russell Athletic Bowl — is a painfully clear indication that whatever mojo Stoops had when he started at Oklahoma is long, long gone.
The Sooners were outclassed from the opening kickoff and trailed 40-0 to a team that had been ridiculed this season for offensive inadequacies.
This OU team was not some trendy pick to make it to college football’s first playoff. It was a virtual lock. Instead, the Sooners finish 8-5, matching the worst season under Stoops since his first year. Only this year was worse: three home losses, including a blowout to Baylor and the head coach himself coughing up a loss to Oklahoma State.
This isn’t Oklahoma football.
“It’s isn’t something we’re used to,” Stoops said.
Actually, that is the first reason it’s now time for Castiglione to dig out that short list. Getting blown out in a bowl game is something Sooner Nation has become all too used to.
Starting with a 55-19 loss to USC in the 2004-05 Orange Bowl, this is the fourth time in the past decade that Stoops’ team has been utterly destroyed in a bowl game on an historic level. That list includes the 48-28 loss to West Virginia in the 2007-08 Fiesta Bowl and the 41-13 loss to Texas A&M in the 2012-13 Cotton Bowl.
There also was a 43-42 overtime loss to Boise State in the 2006-07 Fiesta Bowl — the game that allowed Boise to become Boise.
All four of the biggest bowl losses in OU history happened on Stoops’ watch. Bowl games are supposed to be fun and all, sure, but losing like this is unacceptable for a program of this pedigree.
But hey, there’s always Alabama.
List the mounting blowouts for Stoops and he regurgitates the Sooners’ 45-31 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl last year.
OU fans have begun regurgitating something else every time he mentions it, but Stoops and his staff defiantly cling to their 2013 finish like it was last week.
“We had the same type of plan,” Stoops said. “So it worked then, and it’s worked in a lot of other bowl games. You named the ones that we lost. Name the ones we won, also.”
Simple enough.
In the past decade, OU’s bowl wins are Oregon in the Holiday Bowl, Stanford in the Sun Bowl, Connecticut in the Fiesta Bowl, Iowa in the Insight Bowl and Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
Yuck.
Let’s face it. That’s one good bowl win in the past 10 years. Oregon was in the BCS hunt but had been stricken with quarterback maladies. Stanford was average and also lost its QB. Connecticut was below average, and Iowa was below that.
And as long as we’re offering up hard truths, let’s be real. What Nick Saban said about his team’s disinterest last year in New Orleans may not have sat well with Sooner fans, but it looks more and more like he was right. The Crimson Tide, coming off a surreal loss to rival Auburn that knocked it out of the national title game, didn’t give a flip about being in the Consolation Bowl.
Now, that’s on ’Bama, not Oklahoma. But this time it was OU that was clearly disinterested.
“Everyone’s doing the best they can,” Mike Stoops said, “and for whatever reason, this season didn’t go as expected.”
Bob Stoops said the Sooners were prepared — a three-and-out on the first offensive possession and a 65-yard touchdown on the first defensive play proves otherwise — but said “we weren’t able to come up with the play to make it happen.”
Oklahoma football has come to this. Each week this season, OU was favored by Las Vegas oddsmakers to win. And because they weren’t able to come up with plays — you know, interceptions returned for touchdowns, chip-shot field goals, tackles — they lost five games.
Some suppose Castiglione may ask Stoops only to make changes to his staff, but he’s already tried that, firing fired four assistants and letting a fifth one, Clemson defensive wizard Brent Venables, take another job.
No. If meaningful change is going to happen in Norman, this repair needs to be bigger than just sacrificing a few lieutenants.
Stoops is a young 54. The game hasn’t passed him by. But this year, thanks to a $700,000 appreciation bonus just for staying, he’ll make $5.4 million.
It’s a hard thing to say, but it is time for Castiglione to find Stoops a cushy job on campus.
Clearly he’s done all he can do as head football coach at Oklahoma.
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