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Posted: 01.05.2002
Should I stay or should I go?
Holy cow -- what a day! You could barely get over reeling from the shock that Spurrier had resigned, until the OU message boards darn near imploded from "will he or won't he take the job?" He being Bob Stoops -- who had three wonderful years as a defensive coordinator with the Gators before going to OU. Stoops has been sighted everywhere from a Cracker Barrel in Norman, a pizza place in Gainesville, a beach house on the FL east coast, to our kitchen (right Todd?). It's just insane.

I love Bob Stoops. Bob helped lead us back to the promised land. Bob completely turned our shambles of a program back around in two short years, and in three years has given us a national championship, conference title, three bowls, and two top 10 finishes.

That said, Bob Stoops is not Oklahoma football. Oklahoma football was handed down by God, created by Bud, made a kingdom by Barry, and returned to glory by Bob. If he leaves, OU will still be OU. OU will still have tradition. OU will still make it a never-ending goal to thump the losers in Austin. We currently have the second-highest paid coach in the NCAA (only behind Florida), one of the best AD's in the nation, facilities any coach would give their left (well you know) for, and a stadium renovation that will make me weep the first time I stand in awe of it. Bob Stoops goes? Oklahoma football stays. Sure there may be some rebuilding around coaching shifts and hires. Sure there may be rocky roads ahead as they take place. But seven national championships speaks for itself. The longest unbeaten streak in collegiate history speaks for itself. And the fact that we're Sooner born, Sooner bred, and when we die we'll be Sooner dead puts the exclamation point on the whole deal.

Will I be sad if I wake up tomorrow and flip on ESPN to learn Stoops will be putting the orange and blue back on once again? You betcha. Will I lose sleep over it? Hell no! The Sooner faithful are hungry, and the winning tradition will continue, no matter who's at the reigns. All this paranoia-talk and freaking out into temper-tantrums each and every time a new coaching job comes open (Ohio State, the Browns, Notre Dame, etc.) is getting ridiculous. If I were Bob, frankly I'd be sick of it already, and would want to get away from it at my beach house.

My Sooners were around before Stoops -- and they will be around after Stoops. Whether or not that after comes tomorrow...or ten years from now... God speed Bob! I hope you make the best call!



Hey boy take a look at me...let me dirty up your mind...



okay, you stay all calm and collected and I'll flip out!

¤ ¤ credit: Lisa | 01.05.02 at 01:20 AM | link--this ¤ ¤

When you graduate under the Gibbs era, it takes quite a bit to rattle you. We got very thick skins during our tenure at OU! ;-) And I grew up with Barry...so I know good came after him...and will come after Bob as well. Now if Castiglione were to leave -- THEN I would panic!

¤ ¤ credit: robyn | 01.05.02 at 01:30 AM | link--this ¤ ¤

two words: John Blake.
Worst season in OU history. Two years later, Stoops guides the team to a national championship. wow.

¤ ¤ credit: Lisa | 01.05.02 at 01:56 AM | link--this ¤ ¤

Yeah, but what players did Stoops do it with? Blake's. Stoops himself has given props to Blake's recruiting abilities. And look how our shelves are stocked now. Blake inherited the demise from Schnelly. Gibbs didn't have the head coaching talent to do anything with what Barry handed him. But none of these hires, save Stoops', had Castiglione making the final decision. Just about every program we have now has a top 10 finish each year. We couldn't even claim that in the glory days of Barry. Still not scared. (And for the record, I was hyper-ventilating when Ohio State came-a-callin' last year.) :-)

¤ ¤ credit: robyn | 01.05.02 at 02:01 AM | link--this ¤ ¤

AUTHOR: heather
EMAIL: animllver@hotmail.com
IP:
URL: http://server46.hypermart.net/drgnslayer/graymatter/move/spl
DATE: 01/05/2002 04:55:57 AM
AUTHOR: heather
EMAIL: animllver@hotmail.com
IP:
URL: http://server46.hypermart.net/drgnslayer/graymatter/move/spl
DATE: 01/05/2002 04:55:57 AM
AUTHOR: heather
EMAIL: animllver@hotmail.com
URL: http://server46.hypermart.net/drgnslayer/graymatter/move/spl
DATE: 01/05/2002 04:55:57 AM

¤ ¤ credit: heather | 01.05.02 at 04:55 AM | link--this ¤ ¤

hee. ;) robyn, did todd tell you how i was coveting stoops? i think the fact that it's a possibility really says a lot about the quality of both football programs. also: i just saw on espn.com: http://espn.go.com/ncf/news/2002/0104/1305851.html

¤ ¤ credit: susannah | 01.05.02 at 01:20 PM | link--this ¤ ¤

I'd heard he was in north Florida today -- sounds like that's good news for you. You guys had better treat 'im right though! ;-)

¤ ¤ credit: robyn | 01.05.02 at 01:37 PM | link--this ¤ ¤

if it happens, i'm sure we're reaching DEEP into the UAA's pockets. spurrier was the highest paid college head coach... stoops was right behind him at #2.

¤ ¤ credit: susannah | 01.05.02 at 03:31 PM | link--this ¤ ¤

Yeah, don't even mention that last one... every time we turned around the school paper had something about Stoops getting "yet another" $2 million pay raise. (Hate to sound nasty, but since I go to OU now, I know just HOW MUCH the academic parts of OU could use a $2 million boost every month or so!) Oh well... those wild horses haven't come to drag me from Norman yet, and I'm hoping they won't... football traffic and all.

¤ ¤ credit: jana | 01.06.02 at 03:14 AM | link--this ¤ ¤




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