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Oklahoma's Bob Stoops Responds to Eli Drinkwitz' Postgame Comments

The former Sooners coach was unexpectedly targeted by Missouri's head coach following the Tigers' 30-23 victory over OU on Saturday night.

John E. Hoover

Former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops
Former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops / Doug Hoke / USA TODAY NETWORK
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Bob Stoops doesn’t clap back at his critics very often.

He doesn’t need to. He’s been retired from college coaching since 2017.

But he certainly got the opportunity to do so this week.

When Missouri beat OU 30-23 on Saturday night in Columbia, Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz opened his postgame press conference by misquoting Stoops from an ESPN story published in August.

“This will be real disappointing to Bob Stoops,” Drinkwitz said to open his postgame press conference, “but OU doesn't always whip Missouri's ass anymore.”

Stoops went 8-1 against Mizzou during his Hall of Fame career, including two blowout victories in the Big 12 Championship Game. The teams hadn’t played since 2011, as Missouri joined the SEC in 2012.

“Felt pretty good. I thought Coach Stoops did a nice job stirring it up this summer," Drinkwitz said. "I thought their coaches did some stuff this summer that felt like they stirred it up a little bit with some tweets and different things. Our guys were ready."

That’s likely a reference to the ongoing finger pointing out of Norman on accusations of Missouri’s potential tampering with offensive lineman Cayden Green leaving OU after his freshman All-American campaign last year for a starting spot on the Missouri offensive line.

But Stoops didn’t have anything to do with that.

So during his weekly appearance Monday on SportsTalk 1400 KREF in Norman, Stoops told host and voice of the Sooners Toby Rowland he got a “chuckle” out of Drinkwitz’s postgame comments.

“Someone showed it to me yesterday,” Stoops said. “I started laughing. I said, ‘I didn’t realize — I thought — who cares about what a retired — I’ve been retired eight years and I’m still prominent on peoples’ mind.”

In August, Stoops was quoted in an ESPN story exploring whether OU was fully ready for the weekly rigors of the SEC.

“We beat the hell out of Missouri,” Stoops told ESPN in the offseason, “all of a sudden now we’re supposed to be afraid of them?” 

“A&M, we had them beat 77-0 in the middle of the third quarter [in 2003]. That was a long time ago. But still, have they changed that much? Have we changed that much? I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

Stoops and Drinkwitz never faced off as head coaches.

Stoops retired prior to the 2017 season, while Drinkwitz’s first stint as a head coach began in 2019 at Appalachian State. In five years at Mizzou, he’s led the Tigers to a 34-23 record.

Drinkwitz’s stops as an assistant coach never even brought him to the sideline opposite Stoops. He was in his first year as a college coach at Auburn the last time Missouri beat OU. So his unprovoked comments seemed curious at best, and petty and premeditated at worst.

“It’s not like it’s last year,” Stoops added. “That’s a long time ago.”

Rowland asked Stoops if he had any reaction or anything to say about it.

“No. Not a bit,” Stoops said. “Other than keep following me on Twitter, I guess.”

Amid laughter, Stoops then referenced a quote from his old friend, the late country music icon Toby Keith.

“You know what Toby always said: haters even make you money.”

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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