Only a pandemic could give Bob Stoops a losing record
The XFL season is over, and as a result Bob Stoops is finally a loser.
Only an international virus could make this a reality.
Stoops’ Dallas Renegades were “predicted” to be the best team in the first-year league, but an injury to starting quarterback Landry Jones before the start of the season changed everything.
The Renegades finished the season 2-3.
The league canceled the rest of its season on Thursday. Stoops met with his team on Friday morning, and now he’s preparing to play golf, and to return the Renegades for another year.
The last time Stoops was a coach for a team that had a losing record was 1992, when he was an assistant at Kansas State under Bill Snyder.
Between Stoops’ time as an assistant at Kansas State, the University of Florida and then as the head coach at Oklahoma, he enjoyed a winning record in 24-straight years.
As you stockpile toilet paper, if you’re one who hopes Stoops will leave his current job for your alma mater or college, or NFL, ... stick to hoarding.
He wants to come back to the XFL.
“It was fun. It was positive,” he said. “It was fantastic. It was a very positive experience and I am glad I did it. I intend to continue to do it.”
There was a faint hint that the league would try to capitalize on what has become a completely vacant sports calendar, but by Wednesday night it was apparent that was implausible, even for XFL owner Vince McMahon.
“They made the right decision,” Stoops said. “There are more important things than playing games. You do what you can to stop it.”
The XFL had five regular-season games remaining followed by two weeks of playoffs. The startup league has remained steadfast in its plans to keep going, even though no spring football league has ever been successful.
When XFL commissioner Oliver Luck reached out to men established coaches, like Stoops, about potentially coaching in this league, the sales pitch was, “Give this a try for a year or two and see what you think.”
There was some encouragement to use the XFL as an experience, and to potentially as a means to return to the college, or NFL.
Stoops sounds content, not like a guy looking to take over at Notre Dame, or Texas. Of course, trusting a “content coach” to stay in one place is like asking a kindergartner to do the same thing.
Show the kid a candy bar, and see how they run.
“I hope to (come back). I know everyone is excited,” Stoops said. “The league has been really pleased overall with the success of everything that we’re doing. The league has demonstrated that the way they will honor the player’s contracts until they are finished through the end of May. That’s benefits and salaries.
“It’s something that I am looking forward to doing in the future as well. The league is going to continue to move forward.”
The XFL plans to return for a second year, as does Stoops.
So far, he found the one level of football that gave him a losing record.
