Big 12 Head Football Coaches Ranked: No. 1-5
Oct 4, 2014; Fort Worth, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops prior to the second half against the TCU Horned Frogs at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
No. 2: Bob Stoops, Oklahoma
As the only coach in the Big 12 to win a national title, or even appear in a national title game for that matter, many might rank Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops as the league’s top coach. However, the past several years have seen some of the shine has come off of Stoops’ once sterling reputation.
Perhaps Stoops is a victim of his own success; success that arrived much more quickly than expected. In only his second season as head coach in Norman, Stoops took his team from being unranked to start the 2000 season to winning the national championship that same year.
Stoops resume at OU is as good as it gets. He has twelve seasons of 10 wins or more, eight conference championships and no losing seasons in his 15 years leading the Sooners. He is the school’s winninest coach with a 168 – 44 record, passing previous OU legend Barry Switzer.
However, recent seasons have seen Stoops’ squads fail to meet expectations. Granted, the expectations of Oklahoma football fans are impossibly high.
In 2009, OU was ranked third in the preseason polls, but finished unranked. In 2011, Oklahoma was ranked No. 1 entering the season, but finished the year 16th in the polls after a three-loss season. Again, in 2012 OU failed to reach high expectations finishing the year at No. 15 after being ranked No. 4 in the preseason polls. Finally, last season, OU was ranked 4th again in the preseason only to finish the year unranked at 8-5, leading some Sooner fans to grumble about Stoops.
The man once nicknamed “Big Game Bob” has lost much of his reverence around the nation because his recent teams have failed to reach the heights Stoops’ early OU teams did. The fans and boosters at Oklahoma count success in the form of national championships and nothing else will satisfy, so the fact that stoops has not played for a national title since 2009 has caused some to wonder if he is the coach he used to be or if the changes in the NCAA game have befuddled the man many felt was once a lock to earn an NFL head coaching job.
Regardless, Stoops has had a hall of fame worthy career at Oklahoma. He has had 75 players drafted in the NFL Draft, coached two Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks (Sam Bradford 2008, and Jason White 2003), and most of all, he restored national prominence to one of the most decorated college programs in the history of the sport.