Bob Stoops, who resurrected Oklahoma’s football fortunes by winning a national championship and 10 conference titles over 18 years, plans to retire immediately, according to The Oklahoman.
Columnist Berry Tramel reported that OU officials plan to promote offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley to head coach.
The news comes 87 days before the Sooners play their season opener, and was made more stunning because Stoops is only 56. That’s relatively young within the circle of elite coaches like Nick Saban (65), Mark Dantonio (61), Gary Patterson (57), Urban Myer (52) and Jimbo Fisher (51), and nowhere near the ageless wonder that is Bill Snyder (77).
Stoops steps down 10 wins shy of 200 and on the heels of Oklahoma winning back-to-back Big 12 titles.
When he arrived at Oklahoma in 1999, the program had bottomed out, enduring four straight seasons with no bowl games — their worst slump since the mid-1940s.
Stoops won a national championship in only his second season and led the Sooners to other title game appearances in 2003, 2004 and 2008.
Those 14 seasons with double-digit victories made him a fixture among the nation’s highest-paid coaches, and Stoops enjoyed the rare cohesion of working under the same athletics director, Joe Castiglione, and president, David Boren, throughout his tenure.
Stoops retires with a 190-48 record, the most wins in program history and third-highest winning percentage behind Barry Switzer and Bud Wilkinson. Five of those wins came against West Virginia, the only Big 12 opponent the Mountaineers have failed to beat since joining the league in 2012.
West Virginia is scheduled to visit Oklahoma on Nov. 25, a game whose complexion changed dramatically after Wednesday’s news.