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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Big 12 coach rankings: Bob Stoops sets the bar others reach toward




April 21, 2014

By Matt Hayes

Bob Stoops did his part walking the walk. Maybe the rest of the Big 12 can join along this time around.

Stoops stoked the fire of the SEC last summer when he said maybe, just maybe, the SEC is overrated. Maybe the league isn’t as deep as many think it is.

His colleagues in the Big 12 then backed him up, each proclaiming the first-to-last strength of the Big 12. But there was one teeny-weeny problem: When the Big 12 had the chance to make it happen on the field, only Oklahoma responded.

The Sooners whipped Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
Baylor, the Big 12 champion, lost to UCF in the Fiesta Bowl. Oklahoma State lost to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl. Texas lost to Oregon in the Alamo Bowl.

The Big 12 this fall should be as deep as it has been in years, and that means another chance for the league’s coaches to move up in the annual Sporting News coach rankings.



Forget about all that Big Game Bob stuff. You want a catchy name? Bob The Builder. Few in the game have built and sustained a program like Stoops, who last year became the winningest coach in OU history. A season after former players had joined the fray of questioning the direction of the program, Stoops responded with a big season that included backing up his talk of an overrated SEC with a win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and an important setup for 2014.

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