Longtime Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops on making return in XFL: Time away from football ‘was awful’
Bob Stoops will coach a football game Sunday for the first time in 1,133 days.
The 18-year Oklahoma Sooners head coach, now head coach/GM of the XFL’s Dallas Renegades, is long past ready. He doesn’t sugarcoat emotions from his time away.
“Oh, it was awful,” Stoops told Paste BN Sports, laughing, by phone this week. “The first year was incredibly awful. The second year was awful. And the third year was just really bad.”
Coaching in the XFL, which begins its inaugural season this weekend, has helped Stoops fill that void.
Stoops stunned the college football world with news of his retirement on June 7, 2017. His Sooners were coming off an 11-2 season, part of Stoops’ 190-48 (.798) stretch in Norman that included a national championship. But Stoops had decided he wanted more time and space. He knows what you’re thinking.
“Everyone acted like there was another shoe to drop,” the 59-year-old said Tuesday. “And three years later, no other shoe has dropped. I felt completed. I’d completed 18 years and we’d had great success. I felt like I had done what I was to do.
“I believe in life, you don’t know what’s next until you open yourself up for it. What else is out there?”
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Daryl Johnston, the Renegades’ director of player personnel, understood. He spent 11 years as a fullback for the Cowboys during their three-Super Bowl decade in the 1990s. Johnston joined Fox as an NFL analyst in 2001, relishing the chance to learn from coaches around the league about what dictated success and to keep talking about the game he loved. But “when you do a broadcast, there’s no winner,” Johnston told Paste BN Sports. Like Stoops, he missed the thrill of competition.
“I really knew exactly what he meant,” Johnston said, remembering his Norman meeting with Stoops as they compared emotions away from the game. “(Football) has a way of really getting into your blood.
“After he did it for such a long time, it would be natural to want to break and take a step back and reassess your priorities.
“Then you find out football is near the top of that list.”
Stoops clarifies: He knew leaving coaching would be “odd” and “that doesn’t mean I was surprised by it or that it was wrong for me.” But he ached for the thrill, the adrenaline, the camaraderie.
“You’re in a gang your whole life (and) go from that to being alone most the time,” Stoops said.
The Renegades called from the right place at the right time.
With the XFL Stoops could again chase his passion for the game but with less rigidity than college coaching demanded. The gig wasn’t based in Norman with his family, but the approximately 200-mile drive on Interstate 35 was doable. A bonus: The XFL’s spring schedule doesn’t conflict with Sooners games that Stoops has still frequented since stepping down. He need not miss games for his son Drake, an Oklahoma receiver.
“All of that together fit me at this point in my life,” Stoops said. “My love of football won out."
Sunday, the Renegades will host the St. Louis BattleHawks in their season opener. The 5 p.m. ET kickoff will be broadcast on ESPN — part of a league TV deal more robust and stable than last year’s failed AAF.
“The TV contracts compared to these other leagues — there’s nothing to compare really,” Stoops said.
His excitement is high. Stoops is ready to compete again, his first coaching matchup against a former college teammate, Jonathan Hayes. Stoops is ready to watch Air Raid guru Hal Mumme coordinate his offense and a former Oklahoma colleague, Chris Woods, spearhead the defense. Stoops is ready also to see what a roster boasting three of his former Sooners players, including five-year NFL backup quarterback Landry Jones, can do.
“It’s a unique style that he has,” Johnston said of Stoops’ coaching. “He does it in a way that’s player friendly but also holds them accountable.”
Stoops and Johnston know questions loom about the XFL's potential to position players for an NFL opportunity. And perhaps success in the league could open doors for a coach or personnel director. But for now, Stoops says, his goal is simple.
“I want to win championships,” Stoops said.
Follow Paste BN Sports’ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein.
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