Stoops To Arizona

Arizona finally pulled the trigger and will hire Mike Stoops.

I have no idea what took them so long to get this done.

Stoops will apparently bring his brother Mark Stoops on board to help coordinate the defense, and current Sooner assistant Keith Sumlin to help coordinate the offense.

Texas A&M fans may recall that Sumlin took over as offensive coordinator early last season for the Aggies, and rejuvenated that offense. When that genius “Coach Fran” did not retain Sumlin, Bob Stoops was smart enough to bring him on board the Sooner staff. And brother Mike is smart enough to give the guy a job promotion.

Nice job Coach Fran! It’s not often that you can contribute to two programs simply by letting a talented coach from a previous staff go, AND take your own program to new lows in the process!

Incidentally, the story is wrong when it says Sooner co-defensive coordinator Brent Venables coaches from the booth, while Stoops coaches from the field. But of them coached on the field for OU, as is evident from this photo (Stoops on the left, Venables on the right). ESPN is populated by the same fools who have decided the Pitt receiver should win the Heisman over OU’s Jason White, so I’m always happy to point out just how clueless they typically are when it comes to Big 12 football.

(11-30-03 Update) Bob Stoops says younger Stoops will not be taking any assistants from the current OU staff with him, so it looks like Kevin Sumlin may be staying put. I hope so. He’s a good coach.