How Bob Stoops rallied Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl, then passed the torch to Brent Venables
SAN ANTONIO — Bob Stoops strode onto the Alamodome turf wearing that familiar white visor, and the Sooner faithful roared their appreciation.
Their gratitude.
Their love.
They kept roaring until he finally acknowledged them with a few waves.
It wouldn’t be the only time Wednesday night OU fans had reason to cheer for Stoops and his Sooners.
Stoops came out of retirement a month ago when Lincoln Riley unexpectedly left for USC. On the night Stoops’ run as interim head coach came to an end in the Alamo Bowl, he reminded everyone he still knows how to do this coaching thing. He rallied a team shorthanded on playmakers, coaches and maybe even belief for a time.
But it quickly became clear Wednesday that these Sooners weren’t lacking.
They were enough.
More than enough.
And Stoops should get a ton of credit for that. No doubt he would deflect such praise and talk instead about the assistants who stepped up, about the support staff who took on extra duties, about the players who ultimately got the job done.
But it’s impossible to believe the Sooners would’ve played with such passion and energy without Stoops’ leadership. This was a Sooner team that had a swagger like the days of yore.
The days of Stoops.
Now, the cool factor of having Stoops back on the sidelines was undeniable. He not only had the same visor but also the same slightly stiff gait, the same hands-on-the-hips stance, the same bend at the waist to get a closer look at the defense. None of that has changed since he retired in the summer of 2017.
The routines were the same, too.
When the Sooners were stretching before the game, Stoops went from one player to another shaking hands and patting backs.
He did both when he got to son Drake.
That wasn’t the last time father and son would have a moment together either.
When Drake was on the receiving end of a touchdown pass early in the second quarter – a bullet of a 6-yard pass from Caleb Williams – Bob made sure to find his son in the scrum that awaited on the sideline.
Bob grabbed Drake around the head for a hug, then smacked his helmet a couple times.
A couple minutes later, Bob walked over to the bench where Drake was sitting, said a few words and patted him on the shoulder again.
You have to think those moments are among the most special of Stoops’ life, much less his storied coaching career.
Now, don’t misunderstand – Stoops celebrated all sorts of moments Wednesday. Long touchdown passes. Big defensive stops. Physically tough runs. There was lots for the Sooner coach to like after all.
The run game was stout, led by Kennedy Brooks’ 142-yard, three-touchdown performance. That he did that on only 14 carries makes it even more impressive. But the Sooners got good stuff from Eric Gray and Marcus Major, too. Gray went for 82 yards, Major for 54, and all the backs ran hard.
On the defensive side, the pressure OU got on Oregon quarterback Anthony Brown was impressive. The Sooners sacked him three times and hurried him another five times, and that was huge because when Brown had time, he hit some big plays.
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The Sooners disrupted him enough to get the job done, and remember that OU was without Nik Bonitto, Perrion Winfrey, Isaiah Thomas and Brian Asamoah, who opted out of the bowl to prepare for the NFL Draft and have been among the Sooners’ best at getting to the quarterback.
Perfect, the Sooners were not. Too many long passes allowed by the defense. Too many penalties committed by the offense.
But when Stoops got the Gatorade bath — or was it tequila? — he looked thrilled. He even played to the crowd when the jumbotron showed him doused, he flapped his arms to get the cheers going.
Then, he raised his arms in an O, then in a U.
Back and forth, he went.
Sooners everywhere ate it up.
And when he was asked onto the podium after the game to accept the trophy, Stoops talked about how great the past month has been, how fantastic everything went. But then he invited Brent Venables onto the stage.
Stoops took off his visor and put it on Venables’ head.
A game was won, a torch was passed.