1. Wow. I'll never forget where I was when Tom Osborne retired at Nebraska.
I had just finished up a final in Doc Craven's class at Bellmont Hall when I got the news as I was walking out. So caught off guard by it all, but somewhat overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all, I turned right back around and went into his classroom, where I discussed it all with Craven and Texas starting linebacker Dusty Renfro.
All these years later, I think I'll likely remember this moment and learning about it while having lunch with Anwar Richardson. It was just a total stop me in my tracks moment and the memory of learning about the news will likely stay for ever.
It's that big of a story.
2. There are a lot of things that you can think and say about the job that Stoops has done, including his enabling of abusers over the years that lived on right until the very end, but there's no questioning that he was an impact-level Hall of Fame coach throughout his entire tenure in Norman. The thing that I know will make him a proud man all the way until his final breath is that while he was the coach at Oklahoma, he won FIVE TIMES as many Big 12 titles as Texas did during the same time. FIVE TIMES.
His ability to coach a football team can never be questioned, even if his morals at times could be.
3. I've long wondered if the only thing keeping Oklahoma from turning into the modern-day Nebraska is the presence of Stoops. When you consider the lack of natural resources that the program works with in terms of the volume of elite players that the state of Oklahoma produces, I believe in 2017 that it takes an elite-level guy in place to keep the program among the national elite.
That's what Stoops has been for so many years and I find it dangerous to assume that the program can continue on the same arc without him as it did without him.
This is a major crossroads moment for that program. The difference between elite and just pretty good in college football can be the difference between 11-2 every year and dropping into the land of 8-5 (or worse).
4. Is Lincoln Riley elite? Can he be elite? Is he the answer?
Man, I don't know that I have any idea, but hiring him as a long-term answer is extremely risky. Ask Nebraska how easy it is to maintain dominance after making an in-house move to replace a legend.Ask them.
5. I don't know what to think of the Sooners on the field this season, but my instinct to label the Sooners as the absolute favorite to win the league drops considerably as of this very moment. The Big 12 looks as wide-open in the right now as we've seen it in the pre-season in a very long time.
6. I have to believe that any national prospect looking at Oklahoma in the 2018 recruiting class will be taking a definite wait-and-see approach with the Sooners. I think this bodes very well for the Longhorns, as it relates to the commitment on Ron Tatum. Whatever the Sooners have been selling its top defensive in-state pass rush target goes out the window when the very thing the program is built on is gone in a moment. There's no getting around the uncertainty that will follow the program while we all watch to see if Riley is ready for this moment.
After all, he's never been a head coach for so much as five minutes, let alone built up enough of a resume to suggest that he's elite and worthy of this job.
7. You could have said the same thing about Stoops when he took the job in 1999 as the defensive coordinator at Florida. Oklahoma got lucky with the dice on that hire and will need to hope Lady Luck is still on its side.
I have serious doubts.
8. Did Tom Herman retire Bob Stoops? With the Longhorns raising the bar at every turn, you have to wonder if Bob thought, "To hell with this, I'm too old and I want to get out."
When DKR retired from Texas, Royal was absolutely impacted by the presence of Barry Switzer, the wide-spread cheating that was taking place and the changes to the sport that went along with both of those two things. As Herman has taken the mantle of "College Football Social Media King", I can't help but wonder if Stoops lost a little of his taste for the fight.
9. There's literally nothing of significance standing in front of Herman in his quest to take over the Big 12. Stoops was the big hurdle and now he's gone.
It's his conference for the taking.
10. Wow.
I had just finished up a final in Doc Craven's class at Bellmont Hall when I got the news as I was walking out. So caught off guard by it all, but somewhat overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all, I turned right back around and went into his classroom, where I discussed it all with Craven and Texas starting linebacker Dusty Renfro.
All these years later, I think I'll likely remember this moment and learning about it while having lunch with Anwar Richardson. It was just a total stop me in my tracks moment and the memory of learning about the news will likely stay for ever.
It's that big of a story.
2. There are a lot of things that you can think and say about the job that Stoops has done, including his enabling of abusers over the years that lived on right until the very end, but there's no questioning that he was an impact-level Hall of Fame coach throughout his entire tenure in Norman. The thing that I know will make him a proud man all the way until his final breath is that while he was the coach at Oklahoma, he won FIVE TIMES as many Big 12 titles as Texas did during the same time. FIVE TIMES.
His ability to coach a football team can never be questioned, even if his morals at times could be.
3. I've long wondered if the only thing keeping Oklahoma from turning into the modern-day Nebraska is the presence of Stoops. When you consider the lack of natural resources that the program works with in terms of the volume of elite players that the state of Oklahoma produces, I believe in 2017 that it takes an elite-level guy in place to keep the program among the national elite.
That's what Stoops has been for so many years and I find it dangerous to assume that the program can continue on the same arc without him as it did without him.
This is a major crossroads moment for that program. The difference between elite and just pretty good in college football can be the difference between 11-2 every year and dropping into the land of 8-5 (or worse).
4. Is Lincoln Riley elite? Can he be elite? Is he the answer?
Man, I don't know that I have any idea, but hiring him as a long-term answer is extremely risky. Ask Nebraska how easy it is to maintain dominance after making an in-house move to replace a legend.Ask them.
5. I don't know what to think of the Sooners on the field this season, but my instinct to label the Sooners as the absolute favorite to win the league drops considerably as of this very moment. The Big 12 looks as wide-open in the right now as we've seen it in the pre-season in a very long time.
6. I have to believe that any national prospect looking at Oklahoma in the 2018 recruiting class will be taking a definite wait-and-see approach with the Sooners. I think this bodes very well for the Longhorns, as it relates to the commitment on Ron Tatum. Whatever the Sooners have been selling its top defensive in-state pass rush target goes out the window when the very thing the program is built on is gone in a moment. There's no getting around the uncertainty that will follow the program while we all watch to see if Riley is ready for this moment.
After all, he's never been a head coach for so much as five minutes, let alone built up enough of a resume to suggest that he's elite and worthy of this job.
7. You could have said the same thing about Stoops when he took the job in 1999 as the defensive coordinator at Florida. Oklahoma got lucky with the dice on that hire and will need to hope Lady Luck is still on its side.
I have serious doubts.
8. Did Tom Herman retire Bob Stoops? With the Longhorns raising the bar at every turn, you have to wonder if Bob thought, "To hell with this, I'm too old and I want to get out."
When DKR retired from Texas, Royal was absolutely impacted by the presence of Barry Switzer, the wide-spread cheating that was taking place and the changes to the sport that went along with both of those two things. As Herman has taken the mantle of "College Football Social Media King", I can't help but wonder if Stoops lost a little of his taste for the fight.
9. There's literally nothing of significance standing in front of Herman in his quest to take over the Big 12. Stoops was the big hurdle and now he's gone.
It's his conference for the taking.
10. Wow.
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