httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAyJX1PK-BY
Before we examine Baker Mayfield as a darkhorse Heisman Trophy candidate, and before Oklahoma is almost surely included in the second-ever College Football Playoff field, let’s pause a moment and tip our caps to Bob Stoops.
When Stoops reshuffled his staff in the off-season, dismissing some assistants, shuffling others around and bringing in a couple new ones, including offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley from East Carolina, it looked like desperation.
While Cowboys coach Mike Gundy rightfully earned praise earlier this season for his team’s surprising 10-0 start, it’s Stoops, in his 17th season at Oklahoma, who deserves Coach of the Year consideration.
He didn’t completely reinvent the offense, but rather returned to his roots, as Stoops and Oklahoma ran the Air Raid back in 1999, Stoops’s debut season at the school with then-offensive coordinator Mike Leach.
A year ago, after the end of an abysmal 8-5 campaign that had started with national championship hopes, Stoops had to change something.
He chose to revamp the offense, even though outsiders cried for the removal of his brother, Mike Stoops, as defensive coordinator.
We wondered if the wunderkind Riley could take advantage of arguably the best one-two running back punch in the FBS-sophomore Perine ran for 131 yards with two touchdowns at Oklahoma State, while redshirt freshman Mixon ran for 136 yards with two scores- and thought Stoops might have sealed his fate by making an unconventional hire.