Well that’s that. The Stoops family is no longer when it comes to the staff of the Sooners. This is Lincoln Riley’s team now. Has been for a year and now he’s shocked the nation in having the guts to fire a Stoops from an Oklahoma football coaching staff.
After a heart-pumping defeat at the hands of the Texas Longhorns in the Red River Showdown at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas that saw both teams hanging typical Big 12 numbers on the scoreboard, Riley decided enough was enough.
This wasn’t the first defensive blemish of Oklahoma’s season, but it is the first time that their offense hasn’t been able to bail them out. The Sooners allowed Baylor 33 points last week and let up 27 to Iowa State earlier in the year. Nobody expected a change to be made midseason, especially after only the first loss, but if we’re being honest, the signs were there, we opted to ignore them.
Oklahoma ranks NINETY-EIGHTH in the nation in 3rd down defense, allowing opponents to convert over 40% of the time. In the red zone, matters are made worse. Opponents score 100% of the time when getting within the 20-yard line of the Sooners, posting touchdowns 85.7%(!!!) of the time. That’s good enough for 124th in the nation when it comes down to the nitty-gritty.
Skeptics of the firing may brush that off by saying, “welp, it IS the Big 12”, but OU is still waiting to face high-powered offenses like TCU and Oklahoma State before finishing up the regular season in Morgantown, West Virginia against the Mountaineers.
It all makes sense in the long run, especially after the road towards another Big 12 title gets tougher with the loss to the Longhorns, but it still is shocking that another Stoops is out of Norman, Oklahoma.
Riley announced on Monday that assistant head coach RUFFIN. MCNEILL. would take over DC duties for the remainder of the season. I can’t wait.
