Oklahoma Sooners Football - Report: OU Head Coach Bob Stoops Retiring After 18 Seasons

According to a report from Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman (and confirmed by Carey Murdock), Bob Stoops will inform his team of his intention to retire as head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners. Stoops coached at Oklahoma for 18 years, compiling a record of 190-48 and winning the BCS Championship in 2000.

According to the report, Lincoln Riley is expected to be Oklahoma’s next head coach.

I’m not going to lie to y’all — this news has absolutely floored me. Many have speculated in recent years that Stoops was a bit burnt out, but that seemed to be the opposite of the case lately. After reaching the College Football Playoff in 2015, winning the Big 12 Championship and Sugar Bowl in 2016 and following it up with a stellar 2017 recruiting class, things seemed to be on the right track, and Stoops seemed as enthused as ever.

After all of the dust settles (and there is a lot of dust), I think we should all be excited for the Lincoln Riley era at Oklahoma (if that ends up being the case). A young, enthusiastic and bright guy like him should do a fantastic job at a place like Oklahoma, and the future definitely still looks plenty bright.

We’ll have plenty to say about this in the coming hours, weeks and days. For now, let’s reflect on Bob Stoops’ tenure at Oklahoma. He took over at OU when I was in the 5th grade, and I’d never witnessed Oklahoma’s success on the gridiron up until that point. He turned the program back into a national power right off the bat, and I can’t express how much that has meant to me personally (though I’ll probably take a crack at it sometime soon).