Beware Of The Denver Broncos

by ccmachine on Jan 2, 2009 5:10 PM CST in Football

Bob Stoops hit a big payday when the clock struck Midnight on Thursday morning. The end of 2008 officially ended Coach Stoops’ tenth year at Oklahoma. Because of that he received a $3 million “stay bonus” from the university. Now a new era begins for Stoops as OU fans are more than willing to embrace him for another decade and beyond but if he’s bored of winning Big 12 championships then the Denver Broncos could be ready for him to win some AFC West titles.

The Rocky Mountain News is reporting that they have two sources who state that the Broncos have already reached out to Stoops in hopes of filling their vacant coaching position. They had better bring a lot of money to the table though because after you put the “stay bonus” and incentives for winning the Big 12 championship, being named the Coach of the Year for the conference and reaching the BCS championship game on top of Stoops’ annual salary, Bob Stoops is already guaranteed to make $6.11 million this year with the possibility of more to come should the Sooners beat the Gators.

I don’t think that if Stoops leaves though it would be for money. Instead should he bolt Norman it would be for the challenge of resurrecting a once proud NFL franchise. With the track record that successful college coaches have had in the NFL it would certainly be a challenge. College coaches (including Stoops’ buddy Steve Spurrier) are failing in the NFL at an alarming rate because the game is so different. There really hasn’t been a coach to jump from the ranks of college football to success in the NFL since Jimmy Johnson. Before you jump on me shouting that, “Barry Switzer did it!” keep in mind that he didn’t jump from the college ranks to the NFL he jumped from retirement to the NFL and built on the success that Johnson had already established.

Football coaches seek and thrive on security and the NFL doesn’t necessarily offer that. Former Broncos coach Mike Shanahan provides a perfect example of that. After bringing the first two world championships ever to Denver he was fired after not getting the job done the last few years even though he entered the final week of the season with a shot at winning the AFC West title. Stoops has it made in Norman! He has the money and security that NFL coaches would sacrifice a franchise quarterback for. So what would he leave to go to the NFL for?

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My take

First – money is no object in the NFL. If a team wants a coach, they will get him regardless of having to pony up a few more millions. It isn’t the same as college because they are solely a business while colleges are educational institutions which have to answer questions about spending too much for a coach when the old library is in bad need of renovations….

Second, I don’t think you need to worry. The NFL practice of taking top college coaches is (at least temporarily) over and classified as a failed experiment. Almost every college coach making the move to the NFL has been a disaster. Couple that with the recent success of the Falcons, Ravens & Dolphins after taking no-name long-time NFL assistants and I think you will find that Denver does the same.

Every college coach at a major program “has it made.” Spurrier had it made. Saban too. Erickson, Butch Davis, etc. They all left because of ego, and because of the lure of chasing success at the highest level. Who knows what Stoops would do. Fortunately for Sooner fans, I don’t think we’ll ever know the answer.

Looking forward to a great game – 6 more days…

by skigator93 on Jan 2, 2009 5:21 PM CST reply actions

Say bye bye to Bobby. And hello to your next period of mediocrity. Again.

by Tech92 on Jan 2, 2009 7:37 PM CST reply actions

Said the team that just got it handed to them by the 5th best team in the SEC

by ccmachine on Jan 2, 2009 7:48 PM CST up reply actions

LOL

Miami bound...

by boomer1 on Jan 2, 2009 9:50 PM CST up reply actions

Man, I let the pain get the best of me…my fault…and yes, we did get raped, didn’t we…y’all want Leach? : )

by Tech92 on Jan 3, 2009 2:56 PM CST up reply actions

Let's say all of this is true

and Stoops leaves. Where do we turn to?

Do we go and get Mike Stoops? Promote Venables, Wilson, or Heupel? Go after some other big name?

Boomer Sooner!

Come check out FanIQ for your one stop spot for all sports

by Jubanator14 on Jan 2, 2009 7:57 PM CST reply actions

At this point, I say we get Kyle Whittingham

Is anyone watching the Sugar Bowl? Holy Crimson Tide de-pantsing Batman.

.0128 > 45-35

by chrisabo on Jan 2, 2009 8:04 PM CST up reply actions

Another team for ESPN

to say should be in the National Championship game besides OU or Florida….

GO Utah, and the Mtn. West!

Thought Clint Hurdle should be fired before it was cool.

by Redhawk on Jan 2, 2009 8:05 PM CST up reply actions

Damn, wasn't that fun watching the western darlings of the SEC get beat badly.

I loved it. I cheered every single minute for UTAH. Our family is from Alabama, but after reading the quotes from Saban, Wilson and the media conjecture talking smack about UTAH, the SEC arrogance made me sick.

Stoops isn’t leaving. Sleep easy on that one.

by scarab on Jan 3, 2009 7:59 AM CST up reply actions

SEC

5-2

by skigator93 on Jan 3, 2009 8:19 AM CST up reply actions

Nice.

Almost as much fun as watching our 4th best team spot your 3rd best team two touchdowns and then blow the doors off of them with 38 unanswered, eventually stretching it out to 47-28 before the “face-saving” garbage-time TD, right? I have much more ammo if you really want to play this game, man, but I’d rather keep it civil like we have since we came over here…

Here we go again: http://thefulldeck.blogspot.com/

by ejruiz on Jan 3, 2009 10:12 AM CST up reply actions

Stoops isn't coming to the Broncos

I don’t care how big a picture was in today’s Rocky Mtn. News. And the main reason is money. Bob is actually making more then he would make in Denver. Also, he’s not an NFL guy. Sure Pat Bowlin has enough “F. U.” money to make it happen, but that was one of the many issues that worked against Shanny. (That, and he was a crappy GM…good coach…crappy GM)

Thought Clint Hurdle should be fired before it was cool.

by Redhawk on Jan 2, 2009 8:03 PM CST reply actions

I think Shanahan was a great coach

As long as he had Elway as his QB. Once Elway retired, Shanahan became much less awesome as a coach.

by skigator93 on Jan 2, 2009 11:07 PM CST up reply actions

that can be said about a lot of NFL and CFB coaches. There are some really good coaches though.

by scarab on Jan 3, 2009 7:59 AM CST up reply actions

You are right

The good ones are the ones that don’t drop to .500 once their HOF quarterback retires, despite playing in a weak conference.

by skigator93 on Jan 3, 2009 8:20 AM CST up reply actions

I'll pull out one of my favorite Switzer quotes:

When he was struggling in the early 80’s, and the press was pushing him to dump the wishbone, and go to I formation that Nebraska was running, or maybe he needed to get better coaches, the King said, “It’s not the alignment, it’s not the align-ers, it’s the Align-ees” And he promised to do a better job of recruiting and bringing in talent.

Thought Clint Hurdle should be fired before it was cool.

by Redhawk on Jan 3, 2009 10:23 AM CST up reply actions

Shanny.

He was 91-69 (.568) post-Elway, taking four teams to the playoffs (1-4) and posting only two losing seasons. Shanahan is a fine coach, but a lousy judge of defensive personel (coaches and players). Coaches also get stale at the NFL level, where players hang around for more than four years, are already grown men and make more money than you do. He’ll do well in his next job, regardless of where he goes, so long as their is a check on his power.

Here we go again: http://thefulldeck.blogspot.com/

by ejruiz on Jan 3, 2009 11:58 AM CST up reply actions

As A Broncos Fan...

I hope to hell you get to keep your coach. No offense to Stoops, but I’d prefer to steer clear of the college ranks when we fill our head coaching vacancy.

Here we go again: http://thefulldeck.blogspot.com/

by ejruiz on Jan 2, 2009 9:46 PM CST reply actions