Oklahoma’s Coach Stoops on keys to game, player relationships, and more:
COACH BOB STOOPS: There’s been a great group of assistant coaches that have come through here. Like I said, I have a great administration that supports us, so we’re proud that we’ve done well, I think, as a program. I don’t look at anything personally, though. That’s just not my nature to do that.
Q. What has been the site of your greatest triumph as a head coach. Could you reflect on this stadium? Obviously you take more positives than negatives, but it’s been one extreme to the other playing in this stadium?
COACH BOB STOOPS: Yeah, it has. That’s the excitement of it, being in this environment. You know, it’s challenging and exciting, and in the end, there’s two sides to it. But as I said, that’s what gets you fired up.
So that’s the way competitors are. You’ve got to go into the environment and do the best you can.
Q. There are so many keys to this game, what’s one thing you have to do to win this game this week?
COACH BOB STOOPS: Take care of the football would be the biggest factor to me.
Q. When you were growing up in Ohio, obviously Ohio State and Michigan were really at the top of their game. You were right in the center, kind of the center of the universe of college football. Could you describe how important that was to you as a boy growing up?
COACH BOB STOOPS: Yeah, you know, it’s funny, growing up you talked about Ohio State and Michigan, and to be truthful, too, I loved Coach Switzer’s teams those years. You think back to how exciting it was watching that wishbone with Jack Mildren pitching it to Greg Pruitt, you had Joe Washington back there, you had some exciting guys. I can remember as a young guy watching to love Oklahoma play. But as you said, Michigan, Ohio State, great traditions, great football, and in that area it’s important.
The game is important, and as a young person you realize that at a young age.
Q. Do you think it’s any coincidence that both you and Coach Meyer are from an hour’s drive apart and so many of the younger coaches now in their 40s are still coming from an area that’s kind of been seen as maybe a little down in football but yet you guys come from there?
COACH BOB STOOPS: There’s an awful lot of coaches from that area, from Ohio and with Ohio affiliations. That’s been well-noted. But it’s kind of different that Urban and I did grow up so close to each other.
Q. Why is that, that so many coaches—is it just because football is so important?
COACH BOB STOOPS: I think so. You know, I think that is true. Football is important there, and it’s developed. From the little leagues all the way up through high school, and look at the number of colleges that are all throughout Ohio that are playing ball. You know, just at every level it’s important, it’s attended, and there’s excellent coaching, I think, throughout.
Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH BOB STOOPS: Well, hopefully in the end we have been doing well. I think Florida, us, and there’s another six, seven, eight schools that year in and year out have played to that level. You just always feel fortunate to be one of them, and I think all of us are continuing and striving to improve. Every year, whether it’s facilities, you’re always with your efforts recruiting and building as a program. You’re just constantly striving for more.
Q. Obviously a lot is being made of the two Heisman Trophy winners going against each other. They’re both such dynamic parts of their offenses. Doesn’t one of them have to excel to win this game?
COACH BOB STOOPS: Well, definitely quarterback play is always critical. You know, those guys are handling the football every down. Definitely I think that’s a major factor in this game is the quarterback play. But you know, as well, that it’s what’s surrounding him, too. If he’s not protected, it’s really not the quarterback’s fault. If the guys can’t separate and get open or are falling down on their routes—he can only do so much. The other guys around him have got to support him and help him, too.
Q. How has Sam handled all the extra attention since this?
COACH BOB STOOPS: He’s the best, meaning he’s just calm. The guy is humble. He just doesn’t let it bother him. We did have a talk because I know it’s funny to think as a young person—I experienced it even in 2000, that all of a sudden people treat you different when you win the National Championship. And I’m sure the same has happened for him now that he’s a Heisman Trophy winner. People treat you different, and you’re sitting here thinking, hey, I’m the same guy. Nothing has changed. It takes a while to get used to it.
I think more than anything Sam is a real spiritual guys. He realizes hey, I’ve been blessed with this, and he’s going to use it the right way. As opposed to looking at it as something that’s a burden, hey, I can give something to other people, and I think he’s just looking at it in a positive way, that he’s been blessed with something special. He’s got a great message that maybe this is the way I need to say it.
Q. He got to spend some time with Tim in New York obviously at the ceremony, and it seems off the field they’re sort of similar guys. I’m wondering did you get to meet Tim a little bit?
COACH BOB STOOPS: I got to meet Tim briefly. I agree with you in that all of what you hear and see it, or when you see them play, both those guys are fabulous players, but what I’ve loved is every time I’ve seen an interview on Tim I’m amazed at just the person he is and the young student athlete he is and what he represents. From seeing that I do see the similarities of Sam. Sam is the same kind of guy – really spiritual, great in the community, has got a strong family, and just all those characteristics. But it’s been fun for me just to watch what I have seen of Tim through the last year or two, and then to get a chance to meet him. I haven’t spent much time around him, but I love what he represents for the college game and what he represents as a student-athlete.
Q. What’s going into the offensive surge in the Big 12 in the last couple years?
COACH BOB STOOPS: Oh, I think the spread offense, a lot of the no-huddle, the quality quarterbacks and skill around them. You look at even some of the tight ends, receivers that are out there, and I think all of that has—and I think as much as anything spreading the ball out and no-huddling, getting the snaps that way, all of that has helped.
Q. Is the high school talent in Texas, Oklahoma, in that area, more prepared coming up for the spread?
COACH BOB STOOPS: Well, it is popular throughout that area. I would say definitely you do see a lot of really good quarterbacks at the high school level that are running those type of offenses.
Q. You’ve been in so many big games, you’ve won so many big games. Does it bother you or insult you that there’s at least one national radio guy who’s questioning your big game coaching?
COACH BOB STOOPS: You know, that doesn’t bother me. I’m not here worried about seeking the approval of whoever. You know, in the end, what do you do? We’ve won our share, and we’ve—whatever. You know what we’ve been able to accomplish through the years, so it is what it is. Have we won every one of them? No. But not many people have.
Q. Does it make you all the more hungry to go out there and get it when such a major opportunity presents it like on a stage like this one?
COACH BOB STOOPS: The competitive side of you, yes. You’ve got a strong will to go out and win it. But I don’t need anyone else and what they say to make me want to get it. You know, I’m very comfortable in what we represent as a program and what we’ve been able to do, and we want more. We’re going to keep pursuing it regardless of what anyone else wants to say.
Q. Have you prepared your team to not only play an away game but for it to feel like an away game because there are so many Gator fans in south Florida?
COACH BOB STOOPS: Yeah, but there’s a whole lot of ‘Cane fans and I’m calling on all the Hurricane and Seminole fans that are down here to root for us. That won’t be hard I don’t think. So there’s another part of south Florida that isn’t for the Gators, and we’re hoping to recruit them here this week.
Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH BOB STOOPS: Not really. In the way they run the football they’re quite a bit different with using Tim to run the ball and their different schemes out of the shotgun are fairly different from what we see from both teams.
Q. When you walk in as a coach how do you embrace the tradition of Oklahoma?
COACH BOB STOOPS: Yeah, when we arrived at Oklahoma it was pretty well noted that—we just didn’t have a strong self-image to be honest with you, and I felt as a program we were shying away from those expectations. And I remember telling the players in maybe one of our first meetings, and I kept showing them some of the championship teams and all of the championship teams and said, this is what we’re supposed to be. You look, I look at Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer, and I said I have to walk by those guys on the way to my office every day, life-sized paintings of them. This is what we’re supposed to be and this is how we’re supposed to play. It’s my job, and I’m not shying away from the expectations of Oklahoma. This is what we’re going to do, and we’re going to work to do it.
Fortunately the players embraced it and agreed. I look back at that 2000 group where we did win the National Championship. I don’t know to be honest if we had any business winning it, but they thought we did.
Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH BOB STOOPS: Again, you’re asking me about personal achievement, and I just don’t look at it that way. Maybe somewhere down the road when I’m retired I may, but I just don’t look at it that way now as a young coach and still building our program.
Again, I’m always appreciative of all the people that are a part of it. You know, this is the ultimate team game, players, coaches, all the assistants that you have. So I guess—but you are excited that we—for ten years what we as a program have been able to do is special.
Q. You only have one player from the state of Florida. (Inaudible.)
COACH BOB STOOPS: Yeah, we’ve recruited throughout Florida. I can’t say heavily. I think a lot of that is because in the proximity in our area and throughout Texas that we do well. But we recruit nationally, and again, when there’s a strong interest with somebody we follow up with it and pursue it. But I think proximity-wise it’s a little more difficult in Florida and the quality programs that are close by.
Q. Talk about the championship victory here eight years ago. That year you were going against a team whose offensive coordinator was about to take a job elsewhere. Same situation now. How much of a distraction can that be?
COACH BOB STOOPS: It can be to some degree, but we’ve been in that situation before, as well, and they’re all managed differently. You know, how much of a distraction it’s hard to say. But in the end it changes things to some degree. But you manage it and deal with it just because you have to.
Q. Can you describe the locker room scene after the Texas loss?
COACH BOB STOOPS: You know, in the end you’re just constantly working each week for the next game, and everyone says, oh, that’s a cliché, that’s coach talk. But when you have to play each week, that is what you focus on. I guess more than anything it was just focus on what we can do this week and let things happen as they will. We just had our head down working one week at a time trying to make some improvement.
Q. When you walked in the stadium, when you guys first arrived, did you kind of have something come over you like, this is where it happened last time, the magic happened in 2000?
COACH BOB STOOPS: You know, a little bit, but in the end you’re just excited about the moment, and what happened in the past doesn’t matter now. All that matters is what you do this week, and so as much as anything, that’s all we focus on is what we’re going to do today in practice.
Q. You spoke about your relationship with your players earlier, and I just wondered, so many of your players still have that ongoing relationship with you, having an endearing, enduring relationship with you. Talk about where you picked that up, whether it was from your dad or Coach Snyder or —
COACH BOB STOOPS: I think the relationship with my players, it’s my nature, so I’d say it’s from my father and the way I was raised. But I always get a kick out of young—out of these kids, and even the mischievous—you love their personality and the energy they bring, and it’s just fun to be around them. I get a kick out of people more than anything, especially these young guys.
Q. Switzer has said several times, being on record saying I can’t baby sit these guys 24/7. Coach Meyer on the other side says, I have to baby sit them. That’s part of my job description. Talk about your philosophy on that.
COACH BOB STOOPS: Well, in the end you try and educate them, and of course not only in the importance of school and your education but also what’s right in life and what’s the right way to conduct yourself, and you know, it’s really gratifying when you see young guys change and grow and learn, hey, this is the right way to do it, whether anyone is looking or not. That’s what you try and educate and teach and bring forth in these young guys if they don’t have it. A lot of them do have it already.
Again, all you’re trying to do is improve them as people.
Q. You say you’ve tweaked some things on this trip. Anything specific you could give us, earlier curfew, practicing at different times, anything like that?
COACH BOB STOOPS: All of that. Nothing earth-shattering.
Q. And you just did that because you thought you needed a change?
COACH BOB STOOPS: Yeah.