Bob Stoops
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Bob Stoops (born September 6, 1960) is the head coach of the University of Oklahoma Sooners football team.
High school and college
Born in Youngstown, Ohio and a 1979 graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School, Stoops was a four-year starter and two-time All-Big Ten selection at defensive back at the University of Iowa.
Coaching career
After graduating with his marketing degree in 1983, Stoops began his coaching career as a volunteer and graduate assistant in the Iowa Hawkeyes program under Hayden Fry. He was an assistant at Kent State Universty in 1988, and joined Kansas State University the following year. Stoops was named co-defensive coordinator at KSU under Bill Snyder in 1991 and assistant head coach and co-defensive coodinator in 1995. During his tenure on the Wildcats staff, Stoops played a key role in their impressive turnaround, helping take what many considered to be the worst program in Division 1-A to national contention. During his final four seasons there, KSU was 35-12 with three bowl appearances.
He then left for the University of Florida, landing a three-year stint as Steve Spurrier’s defensive coordinator. In 1996, Stoops was part of the Gators' national championship team. It was with the Gators that the spotlight found Stoops and made him one of the hottest coaching names in the profession.
University of Oklahoma
Following a stretch of unusually moribund gridiron performance at the school, including no winning seasons in several years, the University of Oklahoma named Stoops the head coach in 1999. Now in his eighth year as head coach of the Sooners, Stoops has a combined record of 76-16 -- the most wins by any Division 1-A school during that stretch. He led the Sooners to the 2000 BCS National Championship and finished the season undefeated, outscoring 13 opponents by a combined 481-194. His Oklahoma teams again earned the opportunity to play in the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game in 2003 and 2004, and Stoops has lead his team to seven straight bowl games, four of which were BCS Bowls, including the Big 12's first Rose Bowl victory in 2003. Coach Stoops' teams also won three Big 12 Conference Championships. In his seven years as head coach, Stoops is 5-2 against the Texas Longhorns, which includes an impressive 5 game winning streak from 2000-2004, in which his Sooners handed the Longhorns two of their worst defeats in school history (2000, 2003).
Boasting a proud tradition that spans several decades and seven national championships in the modern era, the head coach position at Oklahoma is considered one of the premier jobs in all of Division I football. Stoops' performance has made him the frequent subject of head coach searches by several NFL and college teams, which he has repeatedly turned away, and he continues to be one of the top-paid coaches in Division 1-A football. In his short career at Oklahoma, several of Stoops' assistants have become head coaches at other Division 1-A programs, including brother Mike Stoops (Arizona), Mark Mangino (Kansas), Mike Leach (Texas Tech) and Chuck Long (San Diego State University).
Personal life
Together with his wife, the former Carol Davidson (a successful Mary Kay saleswoman in her own right), Stoops has a daughter, Mackenzie, and twin sons, Isaac and Drake.