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Report: Bob Stoops lands new gig

Oklahoma's all-time winningest coach will replace Urban Meyer ... at Fox

John E. Hoover

Is Bob Stoops is still looking for that post-retirement hobby? Or has he officially settled into a second career in television?

The New York Post reported Monday that Stoops will replace Urban Meyer on the Fox Sports "Big Noon Kickoff" pregame show.

Stoops, 60, stepped down as coach at Oklahoma after 17 seasons in June 2017 and handed the reins to Lincoln Riley.

He's been special assistant to athletic director Joe Castiglione and even got back into coaching with the XFL's Dallas Renegades before that league went under during the pandemic. He's also been a tequila pitchman.

Citing an unnamed source, the Daily News reported that Stoops spoke with Meyer about what the job entails and that the network has been "zeroed in on Stoops" since Meyer took the Jacksonville Jaguars head coaching job.

Fox got serious about its pregame show in 2019 by adding college football inventory and by hiring Meyer, and he elevated the "Big Noon Kickoff" profile as a competitor to ESPN's "College GameDay."

Stoops will be in Fox's Los Angeles studios with host Rob Stone and analysts Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and Brady Quinn. Leinart and Bush are former USC Heisman Trophy winners who first crossed paths with Stoops when the Trojans and Sooners met in the 2004-05 Orange Bowl, a 55-19 USC national championship victory.

Stoops, the winningest coach in OU history with 190 career victories, was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame this year.

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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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