NFL.COM TOP 15 COLLEGE HEAD COACHES FOR '15

[PryorFan]

Bob Stoops did not make the list. Oh how the mighty have fallen! It's all very simple. Too much salary and too much power being able to hire good ole boys on his coaching staff have been disastrous (in terms of coaching drive) for Coach Stoops. Can he turn it around in 2015, hope so.

Brides, Patterson and Snyder made the list from the Big XII.

Per DO article this a.m.

 

[JConXtsy]

Hard to be a top 15 anything when the team isn't top 15 anything and you're top 5 salary. That's a poor priceerformance ratio.

 

[Soonersincefitty]

Uh yep, it's time to bust a move. Get out of the quagmire of mediocrity.

The natives? They're getting restless.
Not as bad as the late nineties, but getting closer every year.

 

[Oklabama]

I'm certain that you can find a lot of polls that still have Bob Stoops in the Top 10. NFL.com polls about college coaches don't merit much respect IMO. And, I bet there are 75 schools that would like to have Bob as its head coach. Most college fans think more of Bob than of some of us Sooner fans. That's not surprising or unusual given the last few year's records. Nick is probably still the #1 HC in the vast majority of polls, but I can tell you not every Alabama fan is happy with the way the Tide's season ended last year. I do believe that this season is going to be one of Bob's most important, and will have a big impact on his future with Oklahoma football.

 

[AbsoluteZer0]

Uh yep, it's time to bust a move. Get out of the quagmire of mediocrity.

The natives? They're getting restless.
Not as bad as the late nineties, but getting closer every year.

 

[CTOkie]

I'm certain that you can find a lot of polls that still have Bob Stoops in the Top 10. NFL.com polls about college coaches don't merit much respect IMO. And, I bet there are 75 schools that would like to have Bob as its head coach. Most college fans think more of Bob than of some of us Sooner fans. That's not surprising or unusual given the last few year's records. Nick is probably still the #1 HC in the vast majority of polls, but I can tell you not every Alabama fan is happy with the way the Tide's season ended last year. I do believe that this season is going to be one of Bob's most important, and will have a big impact on his future with Oklahoma football.

Stoops will always be, to some degree, bulletproof thanks to his second season at OU. He certainly brought the program back to respectability from the dark decade of the 1990's and he's had 2 near misses in 2003 and 2008 following the great 2000 championship. But somehow, OU isn't getting the talent and coaching it had and a few defections, suspensions and purges have weighed in as well.
OU seemingly cannot recruit in recent years on a high enough level to be championship caliber.
Contrary to what some say here, the stagnation is not the fault of message board posters as to why OU has painted itself into a corner.....the stagnation is a byproduct of what is happening on the field and inside the program.
The time of declaring that other teams.....most teams....would love to have a 16 year run like OU has had have passed. That ship has sailed. Being "good" is not enough when the team is Oklahoma.

 

[BillyRay]

The time of declaring that other teams.....most teams....would love to have a 16 year run like OU has had have passed. That ship has sailed. Being "good" is not enough when the team is Oklahoma.

CT, the rest of your post was spot on, and I think what is most telling about the part I quoted is the fact that even after all these vaunted "10 win seasons" that many OU fans like to talk about, is the turnover in Bob Stoops' staff. Particularly in the past 3-4 seasons. Compare the current staff to the staff of 4 years ago, and only Cale Gundy and Bob Stoops remain. They rest has been a total rebuild. And the bulk of that rebuild has been from Bob taking action and firing and replacing his staff. So that alone should be a sign that even Bob Stoops recognizes that the recent performance of his football team hasn't measured up to the what the program demands.

The next few seasons will be pretty pivotal as to what direction this program is taking under Stoops. Can he reverse the current trend, or will it continue down it's current path?

 

[AbsoluteZer0]

My question is...we've gone from producing head coaches at other programs to firing staff members frequently. Since head coaches that branch from the OU coaching staff reflect on the success of our head coach...does the firing and replacement also reflect on the failures of said head coach?

We have programs such as TCU and Baylor leading this conference with players that are below the level of those that we are looking for and yet we talk about our recruiting woes? What happened to doing more with less? Are we completely reliant on sheer talent to win and if so, what does that say about the coaching staff? If we are reliant on sheer talent, then we have become the very same thing that Texas was under Mack Brown.

I am no football coach, never pretended to be one, but it really seems to me that this is much less about talent than it is about coaching.

 

[K2C Sooner]

My question is...we've gone from producing head coaches at other programs to firing staff members frequently. Since head coaches that branch from the OU coaching staff reflect on the success of our head coach...does the firing and replacement also reflect on the failures of said head coach?

We have programs such as TCU and Baylor leading this conference with players that are below the level of those that we are looking for and yet we talk about our recruiting woes? What happened to doing more with less? Are we completely reliant on sheer talent to win and if so, what does that say about the coaching staff? If we are reliant on sheer talent, then we have become the very same thing that Texas was under Mack Brown.

I am no football coach, never pretended to be one, but it really seems to me that this is much less about talent than it is about coaching.

For some reason I just can't take your posts without seeing you bang on your keyboard. JJ

You need a new avatar...........LOL

 

[AbsoluteZer0]

For some reason I just can't take your posts without seeing you bang on your keyboard. JJ

You need a new avatar...........LOL

I've been known to wear out a couple of keys. <grin>

As far as my avatar...why is that? It is the unit patch for the 2nd Infantry Division, but I guess the Indian chief in the star might be offensive to some...never really thought about it. It does remind me of the old Catoosa mascot logo though.

I'll see what I can come up with.

 

[K2C Sooner]

I've been known to wear out a couple of keys. <grin>

As far as my avatar...why is that? It is the unit patch for the 2nd Infantry Division, but I guess the Indian chief in the star might be offensive to some...never really thought about it. It does remind me of the old Catoosa mascot logo though.

I'll see what I can come up with.

I have no problem with the avatar. In fact I like it. I guess I was saying you need to be smashing a computer or something.

 

[Plainosooner]

In the last 20 years, what has Snyder done? Does he have even one BCS bowl win? Please remind me. His best team was in 1998. Undefeated and needing a win over a pretty week South champ in the XII title game in a venue where he had a crowd advantage. Got beat in OT.

He is 3-8 against Stoops and there is no question that when Bob started, KState was a better program than OU. His one bowl win in his second tour at KState was over a 7-6 Michigan team in the Buffalo Wild Wings bowl in Tempe, the other bowl game in the Phoenix area where OU fans complained when we played there.

Gary is 2-3 against Bob. His conference titles are all in a mediocre conference, unless you call last year's co championship with Baylor to be one, when they lost head to head. He does have two quality Bowl wins over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and a trouncing of a good Ole Miss team, missing their best offensive player in the Peach Bowl last season. Since moving to the Big XII, TCU is 23-15 overall in a Power Five conference. The conference record is 14-13.

Briles has the best record of the three. He is 3-4 head to head against Stoops. Coached a Heisman winner that gave credibility to his program. He is 55-34, but 40-12 the last four seasons. He also has back to back seasons of having the most penalized team in the country. Some would consider that a black mark against being a great coach. He is 2-3 in bowl games, 0-2 in BCS level bowls the last two season, both times against teams they were better than, but got outplayed and hurt themselves with bad penalties.

I would suggest that if Stoops had the record of any of these coaches, that OU fans would be irate, and be complaining that a replacement should be considered. But since they are elsewhere, they are lauded as model coaches to be emulated. Not exactly a reasonable comparison.

Patterson was 4-8 two years ago. But people around here want to called 8-5 unacceptable. But for Patterson, that's okay.

 

[CTOkie]

In the last 20 years, what has Snyder done? Does he have even one BCS bowl win? Please remind me. His best team was in 1998. Undefeated and needing a win over a pretty week South champ in the XII title game in a venue where he had a crowd advantage. Got beat in OT.

He is 3-8 against Stoops and there is no question that when Bob started, KState was a better program than OU. His one bowl win in his second tour at KState was over a 7-6 Michigan team in the Buffalo Wild Wings bowl in Tempe, the other bowl game in the Phoenix area where OU fans complained when we played there.

Gary is 2-3 against Bob. His conference titles are all in a mediocre conference, unless you call last year's co championship with Baylor to be one, when they lost head to head. He does have two quality Bowl wins over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and a trouncing of a good Ole Miss team, missing their best offensive player in the Peach Bowl last season. Since moving to the Big XII, TCU is 23-15 overall in a Power Five conference. The conference record is 14-13.

Briles has the best record of the three. He is 3-4 head to head against Stoops. Coached a Heisman winner that gave credibility to his program. He is 55-34, but 40-12 the last four seasons. He also has back to back seasons of having the most penalized team in the country. Some would consider that a black mark against being a great coach. He is 2-3 in bowl games, 0-2 in BCS level bowls the last two season, both times against teams they were better than, but got outplayed and hurt themselves with bad penalties.

I would suggest that if Stoops had the record of any of these coaches, that OU fans would be irate, and be complaining that a replacement should be considered. But since they are elsewhere, they are lauded as model coaches to be emulated. Not exactly a reasonable comparison.

Patterson was 4-8 two years ago. But people around here want to called 8-5 unacceptable. But for Patterson, that's okay.

I am not comparing Stoops' overall body of work with Snyder, Patterson, Briles or any other coach. I'm only concerned with the direction of the Oklahoma program right now given the 4th place tie last season in a not-so-stellar conference, the two 34 point losses (one of which was in Norman, the other in a bowl game), a quarterback instability, several off-the-field problems and a coaching staff upheaval.
My concern is how the OU program can move onward and upward. To compare Stoops with other coaches is pointless and is not even a concern right now.

 

[BillyRay]

I'm not gonna get into the back and forth about Snyder. That has been pounded and pounded and pounded into the ground on here before.

Gary is 2-3 against Bob. His conference titles are all in a mediocre conference, unless you call last year's co championship with Baylor to be one, when they lost head to head. He does have two quality Bowl wins over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and a trouncing of a good Ole Miss team, missing their best offensive player in the Peach Bowl last season. Since moving to the Big XII, TCU is 23-15 overall in a Power Five conference. The conference record is 14-13.

I actually agree with you here Plaino. No doubt I think Patterson is a damn good coach. But like you said, most of his success had been in horrible conferences. His first couple of seasons in the Big XII were pretty lackluster. So really he has had one exceptional year, which was last year, and now people are wanting to crown him as something great. He may turn out to be great. The guy may be starting an incredible run that began last year. But I think with Patterson it's more of a wait and see what happens in the next few seasons and see if he can continue it. But no doubt, last season was pretty damn incredible for Patterson and TCU. So we can't take that away from him. He had always had a stout defense, but his offense was always struggling to keep up with Big XII offenses. So he made changes to his staff on the offensive side after 2013, and he goes 12-1 in 2014. But let's wait and see if he can sustain it.

Briles has the best record of the three. He is 3-4 head to head against Stoops. Coached a Heisman winner that gave credibility to his program. He is 55-34, but 40-12 the last four seasons. He also has back to back seasons of having the most penalized team in the country. Some would consider that a black mark against being a great coach. He is 2-3 in bowl games, 0-2 in BCS level bowls the last two season, both times against teams they were better than, but got outplayed and hurt themselves with bad penalties.

You can brag about Stoops being 4-3 against Briles all you want. Fact is, Briles is 3-1 the last 4 years against Stoops, and that lone loss was a pretty close game in Norman when Baylor was 8-5 that year. And here's the thing...the last 2 losses to Baylor were games where it was abundantly clear that Baylor was the superior team. OU got manhandled. Even last season when OU made it known they had the Baylor game circled on their calenders, they took a royal butt stomping from Baylor in Norman.
I think alot of people (me included) figured that once RGIII left Baylor, that their program had seen their 15min of fame and would sink back to the bottom of the Big XII. But that hasn't happened. Briles has kept the momentum going. Sure he hasn't fared well in post season bowls, but there was a time when Bob Stoops had lost 5 bowls in 6 years and didn't have a great reputation for performance in bowl games.
Say what you want about Briles and Baylor, but the last 2 seasons they have gone deeper into the season remaining in the national title hunt than Bob and OU has been in the last 6 years.

I would suggest that if Stoops had the record of any of these coaches, that OU fans would be irate, and be complaining that a replacement should be considered. But since they are elsewhere, they are lauded as model coaches to be emulated. Not exactly a reasonable comparison.

Patterson was 4-8 two years ago. But people around here want to called 8-5 unacceptable. But for Patterson, that's okay.

You gotta remember we are talking about TCU and Baylor here. Not exactly football powers with the tradition and history of a school like Oklahoma. So I'm not sure why you think OU should drop down and accept standards and results that would fly at schools such as those.