I’ve seen many great football coaches over the years at both levels. When you look at the college coaches, Nick Saban can be penciled in for 10-12 wins per year, Urban Meyer has won wherever he’s been and he’s a guy I can see having the same success in the NFL because he’s the type of guy that has complete control of his locker room. Jimbo Fisher has also been solid since replacing a legend in Bobby Bowden. Then, there’s Bob Stoops who’s been another good one since taking the job in Norman, Oklahoma at the University of Oklahoma. After 18 years, he decided to step down and retire.
He was the longest tenured head coach in college football and during his time there, the results were successful and he turned the University of Oklahoma into a consistent force. He was hired in 1999 and guided the Sooners to a national championship in 2000. The numbers simply can speak for themselves. During his tenure in Norman, he led the Oklahoma Sooners to a total of 10 Big 12 Conference titles and he had a total of 14 seasons with double-digit wins including an 11-2 mark in 2016 and a victory in the Sugar Bowl over Auburn in January. He’s the winningest head coach in school history with 190 wins and that has him ranked fourth all-time among active FBS coaches. Here’s another testament to how good he truly was: Only four times in Stoops’ career did the Sooners fail to win 10 or more games and he never had a losing record. He led them to three more appearances in the national title game in 2003, 2004 and 2008 and an appearance in the College Football Playoff in 2015 where they fell to Clemson. He also coached two Heisman Trophy winners: Jason White won the award in 2003 and Sam Bradford in 2008.
Lincoln Riley will now be the head coach and the successor to Bob Stoops. Lincoln enters this year as the youngest head coach in college football at 33 years old.
