Oklahoma's Bob Stoops Can Finally Get His Storybook Ending in the Alamo Bowl
SAN ANTONIO — Wednesday’s Alamo Bowl will bring closure for the Oklahoma Sooners.
Closing the book on the 2021 season will truly allow OU to turn the page, and usher in the Brent Venables era in Norman.
But before Oklahoma’s energetic new coach takes the reins, the Sooners must write a final chapter — one for Bob Stoops.
The newly minted College Football Hall of Fame coach was all too happy to answer Joe Castiglione’s call, stepping off the golf course and back into the OU facility to lead the Sooners through the current transition.
Players and fans alike have expressed their excitement at seeing Stoops command the Oklahoma sidelines one last time.
The return of Stoops means a little bit more to interim offensive coordinator Cale Gundy, however, as it presents a chance to send off Stoops properly on the field.
Due to his decision to retire in the middle of June, handing the keys over to Lincoln Riley, there was no true “last ride” for Stoops. It wasn’t public knowledge that OU’s 35-19 victory over the Auburn Tigers in the Sugar Bowl would be Stoops’ last game at Oklahoma, so Wednesday’s contest against Oregon will allow for a proper sendoff to a Sooner icon.
“I’ve thought about it obviously because he's having a chance to come back and lead our program again,” Gundy said during OU’s Alamo Bowl press conference on Monday. “It's been very — I've been close with Bob ever since. He lives less than a mile from me, so we've had an opportunity to spend a lot of time together away from football, still with my wife and his wife Carol. But it's been neat to have him around the office all day long.”
Gundy acknowledged how important Stoops was during the week-long coaching search, as the uncertainty surrounding everything in the program made for a difficult transition.
“You know, it was a difficult time there for a few weeks,” Gundy said. “It really was. The one thing I've learned through all this is there's not a perfect way for this to go down. There's not a perfect way for somebody to take a job and to leave a program or assistants to have to leave. There just really isn't.
“It's a part of coaching career that we have to go through that's like life or losing a family member or something. It's difficult. It’s a challenge.”
But whether it was as simple as addressing the concerns of the team or holding the recruiting class together, Stoops was there every step of the way to help steady the program.
Gundy has worked at Oklahoma a long time, 23 consecutive years, but hitting the recruiting trail with his long-time boss was an especially unique experience this time around.
“It was a special week that I had the opportunity to fly around all over the country with him and go visit recruits and our commits and go into homes and go into schools with Coach Stoops,” Gundy said. “I was definitely — I had a celebrity with me. I mean, it was unbelievable.
“Sometimes we take things for granted how special somebody is and things that they've accomplished, but everywhere I took him, I mean, it was definitely — the cameras were out and everybody was wanting to take pictures of him, and it was a neat deal.”
The response to Stoops’ celebrity was overwhelmingly positive, as the Sooners were able to sign 14 of their recruits in the early signing period.
And the chaos back home in Norman subsided as well.
Four defensive players opted out of the Alamo Bowl to prepare for the NFL Draft, and Spencer Rattler, Austin Stogner and Jadon Haselwood entered the transfer portal, but otherwise Stoops’ message of the players being the lifeblood of the Oklahoma program appeared to resonate with the current team.
The resolve of the 2021 Sooners is a credit to the foundation laid long before even Stoops arrived on campus, Gundy said. And Gundy was confident the bedrock of the program will be strong enough to pave the way for success under Venables as well, a credit to the work Stoops did over his 18-year tenure at OU.
“Our team has really responded well, but having Brent back is going to be very special,” Gundy said. “Having the opportunity to be here for many years, when Bob moves on, the first thing that goes through your mind, ‘Oh, no, what's going to happen to the University of Oklahoma?’ Well, the University of Oklahoma was winning a lot of games when Bob was there and it was winning a lot of games before Bob was there and probably going to continue to win a lot of games after. Lincoln took over and that's what we did, we won a lot of football games.
“I’m going to make this comment now: We're going to win a bunch of damn football games with Brent Venables.”
Before Venables can get to work building on his OU legacy, Stoops has one last exclamation point to put on his own Sooner story. And Gundy believes the team is excited to help achieve one last win for Stoops, even if it’s been a while since he was leading the charge for the Crimson and Cream.
“It's good to have him back out there,” Gundy said. “Once you're a coach, it's always a coach. It's like riding a bike; it's not too hard. You have your certain ways that you believe, and you don't ever change those things.”
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