Oklahoma dismisses defensive coordinator Mike Stoops
Oklahoma dismisses defensive coordinator Mike Stoops
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Oklahoma fired defensive coordinator Mike Stoops on Monday after the Sooners fought to stop Texas during its first loss of the season.
Ruffin McNeill, assistant coach and defensive tackles coach, will be the defensive coordinator for the rest of the season.
The No. 11 Sooners (5-1) lost 48-45 on Saturday, allowing 501 yards to the Longhorns in Dallas.
"More than a hunch feeling that this was the right response at the moment, that more than anything, we need a different voice in that room," Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said during a conference call.
McNeill was a defensive coordinator at UNLV from 1997 to 1998, and at Fresno State in 1999. He later held the same position at Texas Tech from 2008 to 2009 before assuming the position of head coach at East Carolina from 2010 to 2015.
Riley brought McNeill to Oklahoma as assistant head coach before the 2017 season. Riley's confidence in McNeill played a role in the decision to fire Stoops.
"I felt we had people in that room that could spark us, and Ruffin is certainly a big part of that," Riley said.
Riley was McNeill's offensive coordinator in East Carolina.
"I have a lot of confidence in Ruffin," Riley said. "There really is not anything in this game that he has not done, he's one of those guys who, when something like this happens to us, does not have to sit down and figure out how he's going to handle it, he knows how he's going to handle it as soon as situation. "
Oklahoma players reacted to the news in Twitter.
"All I can say is thanks @OU: CoachMike, gave me a chance when nobody else would and that's why I'm always grateful, no matter what people say they never know you because of the great person you really are and how much you You import your players ... Thank you, coach, "linebacker Kenneth Murray said.
Riley said the players are comfortable with McNeill, which should help in the transition.
"He has confidence in himself," Riley said. "He has skill with the players, they will be happy to play for him."
Bob Diaco will go from being a defensive specialist to training outside linebackers. He has been a defensive coordinator in Cincinnati, Notre Dame and Nebraska and was the head coach in Connecticut from 2014 to 2016.
Stoops had been a defensive coordinator since 2012, when his brother, former Sooners coach Bob Stoops, hired him. It was the second stage of Mike Stoops working as his brother's assistant. Prior to serving as Arizona's head coach from 2004-11, he was defensive defensive coordinator for Oklahoma and his brother from 1999-2003.
The Sooners have fought defensively in the past two seasons, finishing in 80th place in 2016 and 82nd in 2017 in the country in yards per game allowed. Oklahoma is 17-3 under second-year coach Lincoln Riley and the Sooners have scored an average of 41 points in those games, including a 54-48 loss to Georgia in the semifinal of the college soccer playoffs at the Rose Bowl. last season.
In one of Stoops' worst outings, the Sooners beat Texas Tech 66-59 in 2016, despite having abandoned 854 yards. That day, quarterback Patrick Mahomes scored the Sooners for an FBS record of 819 yards of total offense, including 734 passing yards, and the fan base's frustration reached a boiling point.
After a promising start this season, complaints returned when the unrated ranks controlled much of the action before Oklahoma pulled a 28-21 overtime victory at home last month. The army owned the ball for almost 45 minutes. When he was available the following week, when a larger contingent of media than usual approached a bit, Stoops joked that "the vultures were circling."
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The AP college football writer, Ralph Russo, contributed to this report.
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