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Source confirms that Bruce Kittle will not be back as OT/TE coach. #firesale #Sooners
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) February 13, 2013
And the hits just keep on coming. In the span of two days, Oklahoma head coach has tripled the number of coaches he has fired compared to the previous thirteen years. This time the casualty appears to be much maligned tight ends/offensive tackles coach Bruce Kittle according to multiple reports, including the one above from Jake Trotter.
Any questions about Bob Stoops' drive or motivation appear to have been a mistake as this clearing of house is unlike anything we have ever seen from him during his entire tenure in Norman.
As for Kittle, some (okay, many) have questioned his hire from the beginning given his lack of coaching experience and with this news it would appear as if the experiment was not a successful one.
As many had speculated prior to this news, there seems to be some logic behind Kittle transitiioning to more of a recruiting and/or administrative role. Though at this point that has yet to be determined, at least publicly.
Possible that Kittle could slide into the "recruiting GM" role
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) February 13, 2013
It will be interesting to see if, with the potential addition of West Virginia's Bill Bedenbaugh, Oklahoma continues to go with the co-offensive line coaches approach or if they simply allow Bedenbaugh to handle those duties on his own. Perhaps this move with Kittle was even a preemptive one in anticipation of Bedenbaugh's addition. We'll have to wait and see over the coming days/weeks.
Regardless of how things eventually shake out, one thing is evident at this point. We're dealing with a very different Bob Stoops than we've come to expect.