COLUMN: Fans should be grateful for Bob Stoops
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OU football coach Bob Stoops.
At the end of every college football season, the great coaching shifts begin.
This season, there are more openings than usual, with four jobs in the SEC, and high-profile jobs like Boston College and North Carolina State all up for grabs.
When the dice start to roll, fan bases across the nation hold their breath, knowing that their coaches could be leaving for greener (read higher paying) pastures.
Elite coaches always are brought up for “big” jobs when they become open.
Oklahoma State fans got a taste of that for the first time since current-LSU coach Les Miles was leading the Cowboys.
Over the past few days, OSU coach Mike Gundy was attached to discussions regarding vacancies at both Tennessee and Arkansas — the two biggest openings of the offseason.
Tuesday afternoon, two reporters from the same newspaper reported that Gundy had and hadn’t been hired by Arkansas, within 20 minutes of each other.
In actuality, soon-to-be former-Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema was hired by the Razorbacks after he led the Badgers to three-straight Rose Bowl appearances.
So, what of Gundy?
He’s still at Oklahoma State, but if he was in talks with Arkansas, how do the fans feel?
If they don’t care, good for them.
If they do, welcome to relevancy on the national scale Cowboys fans.
When you are one of the 15-20 best teams in the nation — which the cowboys undoubtedly have become — having a sought-after coach is par for the course.
And it’s times like these that the Sooner faithful can be grateful for coach Bob Stoops.
Every year, Stoops is questioned and rumored to be connected to job openings across the nation and even in the NFL — this year it was Tennessee, last year it was Ohio State and two years ago it was Michigan.
And every year Stoops shoots those rumors down.
Stoops is one of the five best coaches in the nation — that’s not up for debate — and the Sooners have him under contract through 2018.
As long as it has that going for it, OU will be doing just fine.
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