Drake Stoops: 'Playing at OU just means so much to him'

Anyone who watched him at Norman North — and anyone who knows how his dad played at Iowa — isn't surprised he's contributing so many big plays this season

How is anyone surprised by Drake Stoops’ sudden emergence as a big-play receiver at Oklahoma?

Drake Stoops certainly isn’t.

“I mean, it was great,” Stoops said after catching the game-winning touchdown in the fourth overtime against Texas. “But I definitely prepared like this is what was going to happen.”

Drake Stoops :: Ty Russell / OU Athletics

Anyone who watched Stoops make play after play as a high school player at Norman North realized he would be capable of impacting a college football game. He finished his prep career with 201 catches for 3,390 yards and 39 touchdowns. As a junior, he caught 86 passes for 1,536 yards and 20 TDs as he helped power the Timberwolves to the 6A-1 state championship game. As a senior, he caught 67 passes for 1,093 yards and 15 touchdowns.

“I knew as soon as he made the decision (to walk on at OU) that, at some point — it wasn’t a matter of if, it was just when,” Stoops’ high school coach, Brent Barnes, told SI Sooners. “What he’s doing is no shock to me at all. I mean, that’s exactly what I expected I would see from him.”

Barnes is now head coach at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, AZ, and he was thrilled to see Stoops deliver the decisive 25-yard touchdown catch in the Red River Rivalry.

Beyond producing just stats, though, Stoops has a certain DNA that demands something greater.

His dad was a undersized high school wide receiver who didn’t get many scholarship offers out of Youngstown, OH, but plied his opportunity at Iowa into becoming an All-Big Ten Conference safety and, eventually, a College Football Hall of Fame coach.

Bob Stoops’ father Ron was a long-time assistant at Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown whose defenses were renowned for fundamental, old-school football. The story goes that Ron Stoops often took his work home — and that meant frequent film study with his boys. Back then, it was an 8mm film projector showing grainy black-and-white images onto the refrigerator.

Bob Stoops probably never had to do that with his sons, but imagine the football knowledge that he’s passed down through the years.

“I’m sure they’ve had family get togethers where there was a lot of football to talk about,” Barnes said. “He definitely has a great understanding of the game. I think he got that passed down as far as really just understanding how to play the game, how to use his mind and not just his physical skills.

“It’s a football family. And you know, it’s a competitive family. A fiery family. Everything you see in all of ‘em, to me, I think you can see pieces in Drake.”

A high football IQ, an undersized frame, moderate athletic ability, a big heart — it’s no wonder that Stoops showed all that and more when he put the Sooners ahead for good on Saturday.

On the go-ahead play, he lined up in the slot to the right and ran a crossing route to the left. He saw the Texas linebacker was stepping up to cover an underneath route, so Stoops deepened his angle into open space. The Texas safety lost sight of him as Stoops looked back over his shoulder to Spencer Rattler. Rattler stepped up and slid to his left, then slipped a quick pass to Stoops, who quickly turned and popped through an arm tackle on his way to the end zone.

“Delivered the ball right on my chest,” Stoops said, “and the rest is history.”

The score put Oklahoma up 51-45, and after a 2-point conversion, the OU defense got the stop to secure the win — and potentially turned the Sooners’ season around. Now 2-2, OU has an open date this week before resuming Big 12 Conference play next week at TCU.

Stoops isn’t contributing by volume — he only has six catches in his three games, which ranks eighth on the team — but he’s making the most of his opportunities by leading the Sooners at 20.33 yards per catch, accumulating 122 yards and two touchdowns.

That includes a 51-yard catch against Kansas State — on third-and-9 — that set up Seth McGowan’s 5-yard TD run and staked the Sooners to a 35-14 lead late in the third quarter (before that game got away in the fourth quarter and turned into a stunning loss).

That’s two huge plays in key situations that Stoops has delivered. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone.

“I always knew,” Barnes said. “There’s just something special about certain guys. You can just see it in their work ethic, the way they attack things, the way they compete. He just has such a highly competitive nature about him. You just know he’s going to always find a way. That’s just what it is. That’s what you’re seeing.”

At 5-foot-9, Stoops isn’t blessed with size. He’s fast, but does’t have blazing speed. His offer list coming out of high school — Air Force, Arkansas State, Memphis, Ohio, Western Kentucky and FCS Youngstown State — did include one Power 5 scholarship: his dad’s alma mater, Iowa.

Instead, Stoops followed his heart and walked on at OU — where his dad’s legacy is assured, yes, but where he also grew up with an unabashed passion for the crimson and cream.

“Just a kid that’s grown up watching OU football his whole life, being a kid there in Norman — playing at OU just means so much to him,” Barnes said. “You can see all of it.”

The Stoops family in 2000 / OU Athletics

Carol Stoops was pregnant with twins when Bob took the OU job in December 1998. Drake and Isaac Stoops were born the summer before their dad’s first season got underway in 1999. So literally every moment of his life, he’s been a Sooner.

“Growing up, I definitely dreamed about moments like this,” Stoops said after the Texas game. “It wasn’t necessarily in a Sooners uniform or not, but I definitely ... I just love football so unexplainably much. And so to be able to make a play like that for this team and a team from my hometown and all that, I mean it’s just absolutely unbelievable. I prayed for times like this.”

“He’s not lying,” Barnes said. “There’s some people I can kind of see, you know, they might have a social life … but Drake’s one of those kids, I don’t even know what he would do without football. It just is who he is. That’s not surprising he would say that. He absolutely loves it.”

Stoops played in two games as a true freshman in 2018 and caught two passes for eight yards. As a redshirt freshman last year, he played in all 14 games at either wideout or on special teams, and he finished the year with eight receptions for 95 yards.

Now a third-year sophomore, Stoops has two starts under his belt, scored the first two touchdowns of his career — and actually looks like he’s getting better every week. In Lincoln Riley’s offense, and with his family genes (and football intelligence), who knows how far it could take him?

“Drake, what can you say?” Riley said moments after beating Texas, “I’ll bet his daddy’s pretty happy right now.”

“I’m just very thankful for the opportunity,” Stoops said, “and try to do my best and do my job every play and help out the team.”

Said Barnes, “I’m obviously extremely excited and happy for him, especially this past week to have the moment that he had. Because he’s had some other good plays in other good games. But that moment at that time was obviously a great thrill for me.”

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