Robert Anthony Stoops (born September 9, 1960) is the head coach of the University of Oklahoma football team. During the 2000 season, Stoops led the Sooners to an Orange Bowl victory and a National Championship.

Prior to coaching at Oklahoma, Stoops held various coordinator and position-coach positions at Iowa, Kansas State and Florida. In 2000, Stoops led his team to three consecutive wins over ranked teams including Texas, Kansas State and Nebraska. Stoops was awarded the 2000 Paul "Bear" Bryant Award and the 2000 and 2003 Walter Camp Coach of the Year for "Coach of the Year."

High school and college

Stoops is one of 6 children born to Ron Sr. and Evelyn "Dee Dee" Stoops in Youngstown, Ohio. He is a 1978 graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School, where his father was the long-time defensive coordinator of the football team. Bob and his three brothers (Ron Jr., Mike, and Mark) were all coached by Ron Sr. at Mooney. During a game in 1988 against the team coached by Ron Jr., Ron Sr. began experiencing chest pains. He was placed in an ambulance following the game and died en route to the hospital.

Stoops was a four-year starter and one-time All-Big Ten selection at defensive back at the University of Iowa. He was also one of the Big Ten's Most Valuable Players in 1982.

Coaching career

After graduating with his marketing degree in 1983, Stoops began his coaching career as a volunteer firefighter and graduate assistant in the Iowa Hawkeyes program under Hayden Fry. He was an assistant at Kent State University in 1988, and joined Kansas State University the following year. Stoops was named co-defensive coordinator at Kansas State under Bill Snyder in 1991 and assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator in 1995. During his tenure on the Wildcats staff, Stoops played a key role in their impressive turnaround, helping take what many considered to be the worst program in Division 1-A to national contention. During his final four seasons there, KSU was 35-12 with three bowl appearances.

He then left for the University of Florida, and landed a three-year stint as Steve Spurrier’s defensive coordinator. Hired after Florida gave up 62 points to Nebraska in the 1995 Fiesta Bowl, he was given full powers over the Gators defense and was part of the Gators' national championship win over Florida State in the 1996 Sugar Bowl.

It was with the Gators that the spotlight found Stoops and made him one of the hottest coaching names in the profession. Stoops' success at Kansas State and Florida launched him to the top of the list of assistant coaches primed for head coaching positions in 1999.

University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma named Stoops their head coach in 1999. Stoops quickly turned the program around, winning seven games and taking the Sooners to their first bowl game in four years. Now in his tenth year as head coach of the Sooners, Stoops has a combined record of 114–28–0, which puts him a game behind Texas Longhorn head coach Mack Brown for the most wins by any Division 1-Football Bowl Subdivision school and the best record of any BCS school during that stretch. Along with Bennie Owen, Bud Wilkinson, and Barry Switzer, he is one of four coaches to win over 100 games at the University of Oklahoma. No other college football program has more than 3 coaches to accomplish such a feat.

He led the Sooners to the 2000 BCS National Championship and finished the season undefeated, outscoring 13 opponents by a combined 481-194. His Oklahoma teams again earned the opportunity to play in the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game in 2003 and 2004, losing to LSU 21–14 in the 2004 Sugar Bowl, and to USC 55–19 in the 2005 Orange Bowl. Stoops, however, has led his team to eight straight bowl games, five of which were BCS Bowls, including the Big 12's first Rose Bowl victory as the Sooners upended Washington State 34–14 in Pasadena on New Years Day 2003. Stoops penchant for winning the big games early in his career earned him the nickname "Big Game Bob", (which still applies with a record 3 BCS title game losses, more than any coach in the country) and his teams have only lost a total of two games at home in Norman, Oklahoma. Under Stoops, the Sooners have won six Big 12 Conference Championships, the most of any Big 12 team. Oklahoma is also the only team to win back-to-back-to-back Big 12 Championships. In his ten years as head coach, Stoops is 6-5 against the Texas Longhorns, which includes a 5 game winning streak from 2000-2004, in which his Sooners handed the Longhorns two of their worst defeats in school history, 63–14 and 65–13 respectively (2000, 2003).

On July 11, 2007, Oklahoma was placed on probation for two years by the NCAA for a rules violation involving QB Rhett Bomar and OL JD Quinn, who the University had previously suspended from the team due to the players' efforts to obtain payment for hours not worked. While the students who violated the rules were reinstated by the NCAA and allowed to play for other schools, the University, which had self-reported the violations, was initially directed to vacate all wins during the 2005-2006 season, which included a 17-14 win over the University of Oregon in the Holiday Bowl. Oklahoma appealed the NCAA's ruling of a "failure to monitor" the employment of players in the program, as well as a reduction in scholarships and probation lasting until May, 2010. On February 22, 2008, the NCAA reversed part of the decision and reinstated the vacated wins.

Stoops' performance at Oklahoma has made him the frequent subject of head coach searches by several NFL teams as well as other college programs, which he has repeatedly turned away. He was reportedly the top-paid coach in Division 1-A football with annual compensation in excess of $3 million until Nick Saban was signed by the University of Alabama for $4 million per year beginning in 2007. However, Stoops will receive a "longevity bonus" of $3,000,000 at the end of the 2008 season (his 10th), making his annual salary in 2008 approx. $6,100,000.00, not including potential bonuses of up to $745,000. In his short career at Oklahoma, several of Stoops' assistants have become head coaches at other Division 1-A programs, including brother Mike Stoops (Arizona), Mark Mangino (Kansas), Mike Leach (Texas Tech), Chuck Long (San Diego State), Bo Pelini (Nebraska) and Kevin Sumlin (Houston).

In the 2009 BCS National Championship Game, Oklahoma lost to Florida 24–14, extending his bowl game losing streak to 3 and his BCS bowl game losing streak to 5. With the loss, Oklahoma under Stoops set the record for the most consecutive BCS bowl games lost. He also set a record for most BCS Championships coached in with 4 games in 10 years.

Head coaching record

Personal life

Bob Stoops is married to Carol Stoops, a successful Mary Kay National Sales Director. They have three children: a daughter, Mackenzie, and twin sons, Isaac and Drake. Stoops remains close with Steve Spurrier, his mentor from the University of Florida. Stoops has, in the past, called Spurrier the greatest college head coach.

Younger brother Mike Stoops is currently the head coach for the University of Arizona Wildcats. Another brother (the youngest), Mark Stoops, currently serves as the Arizona defensive coordinator. Older brother Ron Jr., is the defensive coordinator of Cardinal Mooney High School (Mahoning County, Ohio) in Youngstown, Ohio.

References

External links

• SoonerSports.com: Bob Stoops biography