As it will be with any prominent coaching position, Bob Stoops is being mentioned in line with the recent opening at USC. Could he return?
Well, it didn’t take long for the first prominent school to make a coaching move as USC fired Clay Helton after a 46-24 record for the Trojans. It wasn’t all bad, but USC never attained the consistent excellence that they are used to. Helton navigated the Trojans to just ten win seasons during his time as head coach and won just one Pac-12 championship.
So now USC turns to a coaching search, where they’ll hope to land a head coach that has some experience and a winning pedigree. Two things that Helton didn’t have when he took over the USC job.
And as it is with any coaching vacancy at a big-time school, former Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops is getting mentioned as a name to replace Helton with the Trojans.
The thought has always been that Stoops would only return — if he ever does — at a place already set up to win. That’s why the ex-Sooners coach was thought to covet a place like Notre Dame, USC or Florida if they ever came open. The longer Stoops doesn’t take his name out of the running, the more he is interested. Maybe the only reason Stoops isn’t first is because he’s out of coaching and currently working as a TV analyst. – Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports
It’s certainly not the first big-time coaching gig that Bob Stoops has been linked to since leaving Norman and it won’t be the last. College coaches with Stoops’ resume don’t grow on trees. For a program with the history and tradition of USC, they’ll shoot for the stars.
It seems unlikely that Stoops would consider a return to coaching college football. He stepped away at a time that he didn’t have to. The Sooners were coming off of a College Football Playoff appearance and seemed to be heading for another one when he retired in the Spring of 2017. However, that’s four years ago now, and that itch to coach may still be strong.
Stoops stepped back on the sideline in 2020 with a stint as the head coach of the Dallas Renegades from the on again off again XFL. He certainly wants to coach. But how much of that was a product of the situation. Dallas is just three hours south of Norman. The XFL played in the Spring, so it didn’t prevent him from watching Drake Stoops at OU. However, his new job with Fox could lead one to believe that it isn’t as important as it was just a couple of years ago.
Stoops was brought on to Fox’s Big Noon Saturday kickoff show this fall. His Saturday responsibilities keep him from traveling to Norman to watch the Sooners play. A the same time, his new job could give him a headstart on the competition for the USC gig, if he were interested.
Fox Sports studios are located in Los Angeles. Just like USC. While other names on the list like Luke Fickell, Mario Cristobal, James Franklin, and Matt Campbell focus on navigating their current teams through the college football season, Stoops and the Trojans could begin their courtship today.
Hiring someone like Stoops or even former Boise State coach Chris Petersen — even as soon as this fall — with the plan to take the reigns from the interim coach in the Spring, could keep USC moving forward on the recruiting front.
Coaching changes create instability, and that instability could lead players that were committed to USC, or leaning that direction, to question their decision. Getting the future head coach in and involved with the program now could keep them from losing out on the current recruiting cycles.
Bob Stoops is more than qualified for the head coaching job at USC, if he wants it. And that remains the biggest question when it comes to any job that is significant enough to lure Coach Stoops out of retirement. Does he want to coach major college football again? If he does, he certainly deserves to be one of the top names under consideration for the USC job.
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