Bob Stoops Retires: Mack Brown and Tom Herman react
Bob Stoops retiring from his head coaching role at Oklahoma will have ripple effects across college football.
The decision made by Bob Stoops extends across the Red River to Texas, where the Texas vs. Oklahoma rivalry will enter a new season between Tom Herman and Lincoln Riley.
Stoops’ retirement will also extend across the country as coaches contemplate their futures dealing with the annual stress of recruiting, spring football, fall camp, the actual college football season, Bowl/Playoffs season, and quickly starting all over again.
And, because of the timing and shock of such a decision three months before the start of the 2017 season, it drew plenty of commentaries.
Does this take even more power away from the Big 12? Does the conference power shift back to Texas? Is this a sign of the end of the Big 12? Will the mega matchup of Texas vs. Oklahoma lose prestige without a proven, legacy coach like Mack Brown or Bob Stoops on the sidelines?
New Texas head coach Tom Herman tackled the Big 12 aspect in his comments on Bob Stoops retiring. Mack Brown also weighed in with his thoughts on their 15-year rivalry at the Cotton Bowl.
Mack Brown and Tom Herman React
Tom Herman and Bob Stoops intersected in 1999 when Herman was in his first year as Graduate Assistant under Mack Brown. Meanwhile, Stoops took the OU head coaching job in 1999 and won a National Title in 2000.
Then, in 2016, Herman and Stoops met as opposite head coaches when the Houston Cougars beat Oklahoma in the season opener in Houston.
It looked like that would carry over to a new phase of the UT vs. OU rivalry starting in 2017, but Stoops is gone before coaching against Herman in the Cotton Bowl.
“I was a young graduate assistant at Texas when he took over at Oklahoma,” Herman said in a statement through the Texas Athletics department.
“At the time, they were struggling and he changed that in a hurry. He was driven, passionate and determined to build something great, and he did so at an extremely high level for a long, long time. He’ll be sorely missed at Oklahoma, in the Big 12, and in the landscape of college football.”
Mack Brown and Bob Stoops were the power-brokers in the Big 12 conference for a long time. Now, both are gone, leaving the door open for another coach to take that position. [ Cedric Golden of the Austin-American Statesman wrote a great column on this topic. ]
Will that new power-broker be Tom Herman? It really depends on whether Texas starts winning again at a high level. That’s essentially how Stoops became the face of Big 12 Football.
“Bob did a tremendous job turning things around at Oklahoma and putting their program back in national prominence,” Mack Brown said in a statement through Texas Athletics.
“Our rivalry game became a focal point of college football every year and was great for both schools, the Big 12, and college football as a whole. He leaves Oklahoma with a long track record of success and will be remembered as a Sooner legend. I wish him the best.”
Next: The #1 Reason Why Texas Fired Strong & Hired Herman
The ripple effects of Bob Stoops leaving Oklahoma will be long-lasting and much-discussed. After all, we’re entering the dead period of the athletic season before fall camp kicks off. There will be ample time to discuss, speculate, and prognosticate the future of college football as it relates to Stoops retiring. How will Texas be affected? Stay tuned for another wild college football ride.