Bob Stoops on Caleb Williams: 'I Sure Hope He'll Be Here' at Oklahoma

Sooners' interim coach says he hasn't had a ton of chances yet to get to know the quarterback on a personal level, but did have a good talk after Lincoln Riley left.

NORMAN — Bob Stoops hasn’t had that many opportunities to get to know Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams on a personal level.

Not yet, anyway.

“I sure hope he'll be here, you know, for a long time,” Stoops said during a press conference at Memorial Stadium on Wednesday, “and I'll be able to do that the more time goes on — and even in these practices coming up.”

Stoops is the Sooners’ interim coach as he gets the team ready to play Oregon in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29.

Stoops — and everyone else in Sooner Nation — is hopeful that Williams is not an interim quarterback.

“We’ve only had one practice,” Stoops said, “so I haven't had a ton of time to be around Caleb. I've been to practices over the past year. And we've had a chance casually to say ‘Hi’ and ‘How you doing,’ and all of the — you know, (you have) to start somewhere.”

Stoops said he did have a more heartfelt conversation with the Sooners’ wunderkind QB in the immediate aftermath of Lincoln Riley leaving for USC.

“We’ve talked,” Stoops acknowledged. “I had him, you know, obviously the day or the day after this all transpired with Lincoln leaving and moving on. We sat and talked for a while. And he was great. Strong, great young man. But, you know, have we had a ton of time to build some kind of great relationship? That hasn't happened.”

There will be time for that to happen as the Sooners reconvene for practice on Friday and stay on the grind all of next week.

“You know,” Stoops said, “I look forward to the opportunity being around him more and getting to engage with him more.”

For his part, new coach Brent Venables said he too was looking forward to getting to know Williams better.

"Caleb has been great," Venables said. "I’ve had multiple conversations with him. He looks fantastic. I had as much fun as anything I’ve done in a long time, other than maybe that last shutout against South Carolina — we got after it against a rival and that’s always good — I probably had more fun watching these guys practice and compete and have some joy and some normalcy and do what they love to do. Give them the opportunity to take a step forward as they continue to get ready for Oregon in our bowl game. 

"But he was really good, really sharp. He looked great. Caleb has been great. He’s had the opportunity to get around our offensive staff and in front of coach (Jeff) Lebby as they move forward."