This has to be a tough week for Bob Stoops. The Tennessee-Oklahoma game must bring up some unpleasant memories. So, he just decided to sit this one out.
It’s a good thing Tennessee coach Josh Heupel didn’t do the same thing when he was asked to lead the Sooners to a national championship as a quarterback for Oklahoma in 2000. I’m sure there were tough times. Not too tough, however.
Perhaps Heupel thought of just giving up at times during his playing career, which is essentially what Stoops did in his statement this week via X. Stoops declined any interviews before No. 6 Tennessee plays No. 15 Oklahoma on Saturday in Norman, Okla. at 7:30 EST.
In case you didn’t notice, Stoops misspelled Heupel’s name in the above statement, which means he either doesn’t know how to spell Heupel’s name after working with him for almost 15 years or he didn’t write the statement. I’m going with the latter. Perhaps Stoops has been busy eye-balling the soon-to-be vacant Florida job.
It wouldn’t have taken a White House press secretary to handle this situation much, much better. A Sooner graduate with a minor in public relations could do better than Stoops’ bumbling social media post. Or Stoops could have taken just a little bit more time when he was concocting his statement addressing the emotional week for all parties involved.
Take Tennessee athletic director Danny White for instance. He raised season ticket prices and, at least, had the common courtesy to go on a national podcast to discuss the rather questionable move. Of course, he knew he wouldn’t face criticism in that venue. However, he at least went public. Stoops won’t talk this week unless it’s on his own YouTube channel, which I’m sure is incredibly compelling.
There are ways to get your message out without facing tough questions. I am probably not the person for the sort of interview that Stoops would like, but I’m sure there are media types that would fit the bill.
Depending on who you believe, Huepel (oops) was either a poor coach for the Sooners when he was fired in 2014 or he was forced to run an offensive system that was not to his liking and didn’t fit his personnel. Again, I lean towards the latter considering Heupel has had success at every other stop in his coaching career.
Heupel was also successful at Oklahoma before 2014, in which he helped the Sooners win 10 games or more in each of the previous three seasons as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator. Too bad. Out you go.
Stoops managed to fire two pretty good coaches following the 2014 season. In addition to Heupel, Stoops fired Oklahoma’s other co-offensive coordinator, Jay Norvell, who is now the head coach at Colorado State. Therein, lies the problem.
Stoops never should have gone the “co” route in the first place. He was trying to placate either Heupel or Norvell because coaches love titles on their resume. Titles help coaches land better jobs later in their career. In this case, it blew up in Stoops’ face.
Someone, as in one person, has to be in charge of the offense, whether its the head coach or an offensive coordinator. Putting “co” in front of Heupel’s title was Stoops first misstep in his dance to disaster. Some decisions – as in game plans and play calling – aren’t a group decision, which is the real issue at the heart of the Heupel-Oklahoma drama.
Stoops mishandled the entire affair before it even began. He set the stage. He should answer questions about why Heupel and Norvell had to skip around the country in hopes of resurrecting their careers. I’m sure their families would like to know exactly what went down. They can like and subscribe to Stoops’ YouTube channel for more unfiltered access if you’d like, but I can give you the quick and short of it.
Stoops wanted to save his own hide by cleaning house and making Heupel a scapegoat. Stoops hired Lincoln Riley from East Carolina to replace Heupel and Norvell as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator. That was seemingly a good move as Oklahoma made the College Football Playoff in 2015. However, Stoops’ laid the foundation for Oklahoma to fail once again.
Why? Because Riley had no loyalty to Oklahoma. He graduated from Texas Tech. When Southern California came calling in 2022, it was time to break out the surfboard. Riley’s departure could soon leave the Sooners in a lurch. Heupel would have never bolted for the west coast.
Surely with some guidance from Stoops, the Sooners hired former Clemson coach Brent Venables as its head coach in 2022. Let’s shine some light on that hire, in which Riley left Oklahoma little options with his swift departure.
Heupel was one of the candidates mentioned to replace Riley at the time, but that was never likely considering the way the Heupel-Stoops’ divorce went down. Moreover, Heupel was just wrapping up his first season at Tennessee and probably hadn’t proven enough to land the job. However, he would have most likely been more successful than the other candidates that were considered.
Check out this crew. Oklahoma reportedly considered Kentucky coach Mark Stoops, South Carolina coach Shane Beamer and Arizona Cardinals’ coach Kliff Kingsbury. That’s a suspect list.
Heupel would have been a better hire than any of those coaches in retrospect. Regardless of what happens on Saturday, Heupel has done far more as a head coach than Venables. However, Oklahoma couldn’t go back to that well after Stoops blew up the bridge to get to it.
Here’s the tough part for Sooner fans to accept. Had Stoops had the foresight to know Heupel was going to be such a good head coach and great offensive mind, he would have named him the sole offensive coordinator initially. Then, Heupel could have succeeded Stoops when he retired in 2017 because there’s little doubt that Heupel would have had success as a Sooner offensive coordinator if he truly held the reigns of the wagon. Had that happened, Oklahoma would be led by one of the best coaches in the nation, Heupel, who is more than welcome to hang around Tennessee as long as he’d like and seems quite at home in Knoxville.
Perhaps the way Heupel was treated contributed to his positive-culture approach nowadays. Tennessee’s program is based on good vibes, hard work and making sure that football is fun. There probably weren’t many Oklahoma coaches in 2014 that were enjoying themselves when the Sooners went 8-5 and fired their offensive staff, including Heupel. But the past is the past, right? Probably not for Heupel, who will almost assuredly stick it to the Sooners if he gets the chance on Saturday.
Oklahoma is currently saddled with a coach that no other established program in the nation thought could be a good head coach. No offense to Venables, but Oklahoma is too good of a school for a lifelong assistant to get his feet wet as a head coach. The jury is still out, but there’s reason to believe things won’t end well with the current Sooners’ head coach.
Venables took over for Riley, who went 11-2 in his final season at Oklahoma in 2021, and finished 6-7 in 2022. Venables led the Sooners to a 10-3 record last season, but that may be fool’s gold. The Sooners only played three ranked teams last season and were 1-2 in those contests. Now, things get real.
Oklahoma has the second toughest schedule in the nation. After taking on the Vols, Oklahoma will play at Auburn, against No. 1 Texas in Dallas, host South Carolina, play at No. 5 Ole Miss before getting a break from Maine to begin November. Then, it’s back to the testing grounds for Venables.
Oklahoma also has to play at No. 7 Missouri, hosts No. 4 Alabama and closes the season at No. 16 LSU. If you buy into analytics, Oklahoma is projected to win seven games this season. If you just look at the Sooners’ schedule, they’ll have to be incredibly fortunate to win eight or more.
We’ll know more after this season if Venables is head coach material. However, Heupel has already proven as much. I don’t need to see the rest of the season to know that Heupel is a better coach than Venables no matter what happens on Saturday.
I also don’t need Stoops to tell me as much. He can just take the week off.
