Former Oklahoma Sooners coach Bob Stoops says program in good shape, Lincoln Riley 'didn't invent OU football'

 

April 26, 2022

Dave Wilson

ESPN Staff Writer

 

On a day he was celebrated by the Oklahoma Legislature, former Sooners coach Bob Stoops gave a campaign-like speech reassuring fans after the departure of coach Lincoln Riley.

 

"Lincoln Riley didn't invent OU football," Bob Stoops said while being honored Tuesday with a resolution celebrating "a career of service to the Oklahoma community and success with the OU Football program."

 

Stoops served as head coach at Oklahoma for 18 years before handing the keys to his offensive coordinator, Riley, who left Norman after five seasons for USC. Riley has been replaced by another former Stoops assistant in Brent Venables.

 

"Brent was a major part of [Oklahoma's undefeated 2000 season]," Stoops said. "He was with us 13 years and then went 10 years to Clemson where they've had as big a resurgence -- not resurgence they've come from nowhere -- to be one of the premier teams in the country. He's got all the experience in the world. I don't need to tell you about his passion and energy. It oozes all over the place and infects everybody."

 

Stoops gave credit to Bud Wilkinson, who arrived in 1947, for laying the foundation for one of the most storied programs in college football.

"Bud Wilkinson created the monster that Coach [Barry] Switzer always referred to and I had to deal with it for 18 years," Stoops said. "And it's a monster. But I loved it. I am the fortunate one to have been able to be at Oklahoma for all these years -- 18 as the head coach -- and fortunately they've kept me on here for a while so that I could step in in moments like that. Hopefully we don't have any more."

Stoops stepped in in the immediate aftermath of Riley's resignation, coaching the Sooners to a 47-32 win over Oregon in the Valero Alamo Bowl. Stoops' emergency coaching job was one of the many things he was recognized for Tuesday.

 

He said it wasn't hard to be drawn back to the sideline, particularly because he got the call from athletic director Joe Castiglione and president Joe Harroz while he was on the golf course.

 

"I've been given way too much credit for it," Stoops said. "I wasn't golfing all that well that day, so it was easy to leave the course."

 

He said he immediately set out to steady the emotions of the shocked Sooners.

 

"My first mission was to remind everybody -- players, community, everybody at the university -- Lincoln Riley didn't invent OU football, OK?" Stoops said, to an audible agreement from a few legislators. "Everyone needed a wake-up call because they kind of slipped into thinking he did."

“I promise you we are in great, great hands and I look forward to the future in a really positive way,” Bob Stoops said. Kevin Jairaj/USA Today Sports

 

Tuesday's resolution honored Stoops for his coaching career including being the only coach in the BCS era to win the Fiesta, Orange, Rose and Sugar Bowls plus the national championship. He coached the Sooners to more wins than any other Power 5 program during his 18-year tenure. It cited his 101-9 record at home, the 37 All-America players and 79 draft picks he coached, including two Heisman Trophy winners.

Stoops was also commended for his charity work and his work with patients at children's hospitals "immersing them in the Sooner football experience."

Stoops, with Harroz standing beside him and the OU spirit squad and mascot Boomer in attendance for OU Day in the legislature, also used the opportunity to do a little politicking of his own, making his case for further funding for the university.

"Please keep sending it our way in positive ways, if you would," he said.

He wrapped up his speech with more reassurance toward the future of the football program.

"I promise you we are in great, great hands and I look forward to the future in a really positive way," he said. "Love the state of Oklahoma. Boomer," he said, as House members replied, "Sooner!"

Bob Stoops is back for the Alamo Bowl, and Oklahoma fans are loving it

 

7:00 AM ET

Dave Wilson

ESPN Staff Writer

 

On Nov. 28, a bad weekend for Oklahoma football fans turned even worse. A day after losing to Oklahoma State in Stillwater and getting eliminated from Big 12 title contention, head coach Lincoln Riley made a swift, stunning departure for USC.

For the first time since 1947, a Sooners coach had left for another college job. Oklahoma, once the bastion of sustained success and stability, was in free fall.

"For 24 to 36 hours, there was panic in the streets, and people didn't know what was going to happen with Oklahoma football," said Dusty Dvoracek, a former Sooners player who lives in Norman and hosts a daily radio show on SiriusXM, contributes to television in Oklahoma City and calls games on ESPN. "People were freaking out around here, I mean, freaking out. Oklahoma's not a place that somebody leaves."

Then Monday rolled around, and Oklahoma president Joe Harroz and athletic director Joe Castiglione had a news conference inside Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Beside them sat a familiar face: former Sooners coach Bob Stoops, who would be the new interim coach. Stoops took the podium and announced that Oklahoma football would be just fine.

"It's Lincoln's choice to leave," Stoops said he told the team after Riley announced his departure and left the room. "It's OK. You're the ones who are going to make all the plays or not make the plays. You guys win and lose. You're OU football. He isn't. I'm not. And any other coach who comes here isn't.

"OU football has been here a long time. And it isn't going anywhere else. It's going to be here, and it's going to be at the top of college football and it's going to continue that way."

It had only been five years since Stoops stepped aside, handing the keys to the storied program to the 33-year-old Riley at the end of a legendary career that included a 190-48 record at OU. Stoops was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame earlier this month.

But when Stoops got his turn at the microphone, fans had flashbacks. Every time he spoke, thousands of tweets were launched as fans celebrated his confident assertions that this was a "bump in the road."

Rick Knapp, the executive director of the Touchdown Club of Oklahoma who has been to 591 Sooners games, said Stoops' comments stopped the panic after Riley's departure.

"It was darkness and, all of a sudden, it's light," he said.

"It's just amazing how quickly it flipped," Dvoracek said.

"That really helped quickly change the narrative," Castiglione said. "Those are the identical characteristics that made him the winningest coach in Oklahoma history. A coach that, through his players, achieved greatness on so many levels. And why he is so beloved."

For OU fans, it was a stark contrast. Riley jilted the Sooners and the coach who hired him from East Carolina and handed him a national championship-caliber team; whereas Stoops -- who Castiglione said immediately asked, "How can I help?" -- embodied loyalty.

The man who wore the OU visor for 18 years and turned away dozens of opportunities to leave for the NFL or other college jobs just happened to be down the road, still living in Norman. With Stoops leading the charge, fans have been thrilled to be along for the ride that will culminate with Wednesday's Valero Alamo Bowl, when Stoops and Oklahoma play Oregon (9:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN app).

 

"Here's the thing," said Berry Tramel, the longtime columnist at The Oklahoman and radio host. "They loved Bob. But it's possible they love him more now than they did back then."

 

Tramel covered his first Sooners game in 1979 when OU faced Iowa and a freshman named Bob Stoops was making his first start at safety for the Hawkeyes.

 

"I think people sort of forgot that persona," Tramel said of Stoops. "No matter what's going on, he projects confidence. The world falls in, and the next day, he's up there saying, 'Hey, everything's gonna be fine. Everybody settle down.'"

 

It wasn't much different than Dec. 1, 1998, when Stoops arrived from Florida -- where he was Steve Spurrier's defensive coordinator -- to be introduced as the new coach of the Sooners.

 

"People are going to expect what they want," Stoops said then. "Certainly, I expect more. I expect us to be in a position next year to be very good, to have a chance to win many games, if not all of them."

 

Nothing was guaranteed. The Sooners hadn't had a winning season in six years before Stoops arrived, going 12-22 under John Blake, 5-5-1 in one season under Howard Schnellenberger and 6-6 in Gary Gibbs' final season.

 

The Sooners didn't win all of them that year, finishing 7-5, while making their first bowl appearance in five years. But they did run the table the next season, beating No. 11 Texas 63-14, before knocking off No. 2 Kansas State and No. 1 Nebraska then No. 8 Kansas State again in the title game to finish 13-0 with a win over No. 3 Florida State in the BCS National Championship. The Sooners were back, and under Stoops, they went to 18 straight bowl games and won 10 Big 12 titles. The school built a statue of him outside the stadium alongside those of Bud Wilkinson and Barry Switzer.

Stoops was drenched by his players after Oklahoma beat Florida State 13-2 in the 2001 Orange Bowl. Under Stoops, the Sooners went to 18 straight bowl games and won 10 Big 12 titles. AP Photo/David F. Martin)

"He didn't just come in and wake a sleeping giant, but he left it in a situation where it was gonna continue to thrive for decades to come," Dvoracek said of Stoops. "So for him to be able to step in when there is that little gap as everybody was somewhat stunned, I think is really unique."

Tramel joked that Stoops didn't exactly upend his life to take on this role, saying, "He didn't move back from Miami Beach or anything. He lives right there on I-35."

Stoops, who isn't much for the adoration, agrees. He doesn't quite see what the big deal is.

"I think it just allowed people to have some comfort," he said of his return. "I mean, obviously, coming back after being out five years is different. Just the fact that I've been here so long made it easy to do."

He has been around the team frequently. He recruited some of the players who are still there. His son Drake is a Sooners wide receiver. Several of the assistant coaches worked for him.

And Stoops was just 56 when he retired, which means he still looks the part at 61.

"He left when he still had a lot of fire," Tramel said. "And now, here, five years later, he's still got a lot of fire. He's not a relic, you know? He sounds just like he used to, and he looks -- outside of the beard -- a lot like he used to."

Stoops also spent an entire season firing up OU fans while working on Fox's college football pregame show, even leading the crowd in a "Texas Sucks!" chant before OU's Sept. 18 game against Nebraska. It endeared him to a whole new generation of fans and even to those who criticized him for not winning a national title after his second season, which is the true measure of success at Oklahoma.

THE LEGEND BOB STOOPS. pic.twitter.com/60luHUJlf4

— 𝕆𝕂𝕃𝔸ℍ𝕆𝕄𝔸-𝕍𝕊-𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕎𝕆ℝ𝕃𝔻 (@soonergridiron) September 18, 2021

"Anybody that was on the fence about him was off after that," Tramel said.

Stoops hit the road recruiting, helping the Sooners maintain a top-10 recruiting class during a coaching change. And while Riley was a Stoops assistant for two seasons, the Sooners' new coach, former Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables, is a longtime Stoops loyalist.

Venables played linebacker at Kansas State when Stoops was defensive co-coordinator of the Wildcats, then the two coached alongside each other at K-State from 1993 to 1995, until Stoops left to become Spurrier's D-coordinator at Florida. When Stoops got the Oklahoma job, he brought Venables to Norman, where he served as Stoops' defensive coordinator from 1999 to 2011, including several of those campaigns as co-coordinator with Stoops' brother Mike.

"Brent's the absolute perfect fit for OU," Stoops told reporters after Venables was hired on Dec. 7. Stoops was in Las Vegas, where he spoke at the National Football Foundation dinner on behalf of all his fellow College Football Hall of Fame inductees. "He's perfect for us. I love his experience, not just with us, but at Clemson, seeing it at the best level. So he's going to bring us a lot, I think, to even improve us."

A popular Christmas gift this year in Oklahoma was a T-shirt that said, "Bud. Barry. Bob. Brent." The guy who went 55-10, won four Big 12 titles in five years and made three College Football Playoff appearances has already been excommunicated.

It seems a few weeks of holding down the fort while a protégé moves into his old office has given Stoops' legacy a new shine.

"We need to build him a second statue, maybe with a beard and some Rock N Roll Tequila and a cigar on it," said Oklahoma fan Travis Davidson, who organizes regular Twitter Spaces gatherings about the team, in a nod to Stoops' post-coaching side business.

 

Congratulations to our owner, partner, and dear friend @CoachBobStoops on being recognized for the work he’s put in, day in and day out for his entire life, to become one of the newest members of the College Football Hall of Fame… #Boomer pic.twitter.com/2ycMXQmVnp

— ROCK N ROLL TEQUILA (@RockRollTequila) December 11, 2021

On Tuesday, Stoops was asked if he would mind substituting a Gatorade bath for a splash of tequila if he led the Sooners to a victory in the Alamo Bowl.

"That'd be OK," he said. "What's the administration gonna do, fire me?"

Comments like that are how Stoops has already gotten Oklahoma fans excited about a bowl game that would have been a disappointing destination when the season began with national championship aspirations.

"Quite honestly, OU fans are a little jaded. And they don't quite stir very easily, especially for a bowl like the Alamo Bowl," Knapp said. "But we have people wanting to go to the Alamo Bowl just to see Bob beat Oregon."

They'll be watching to see Stoops in the visor one more time, one last chance to thank a Hall of Famer for his devotion.

"When he left, he didn't leave," Tramel said of Stoops. "You know, Florida loves Urban Meyer, but when he left, he went to Ohio State. When Pete Carroll left USC, he went to Seattle. Most guys move on to something else. And now, when you look back, you think, you know what? Turned out when he said he liked Oklahoma, he wasn't just babblin', compared to Lincoln, who you never thought was going to pull something like this. But he did."

 

For Knapp, this chapter puts Stoops in even more rarefied air among legendary company in OU history.

 

"Everybody in Oklahoma says Barry Switzer is the king and then Bob was the prince," Knapp said. "But Bob is the king for the generations after us." 

College football's greatest coaching 'What if ...' scenarios

Apr 13, 2020

·       Chris Low | ESPN Senior Writer

Bob Stoops won 10 conference championships and a national title in his 18 years at Oklahoma. AP Photo/Brett Coomer, File

College football is defined, in large part, by legendary coaches who become institutions at the schools they call home. But in many cases, those coaches came within an inch of never ending up at those schools in the first place. How different would the landscape of the game look if Bob Stoops had gone to Iowa instead of Oklahoma? Or if he took the Florida job in 2002 and it was never open for Urban Meyer just a few years later? What if the Head Ball Coach made his name at LSU or even Tennessee instead of The Swamp?

We talk to those coaches to get the story on just how close they came to taking different jobs and how things would have changed if they did.

What if Iowa had offered its job to Bob Stoops?

It's a question Bob Stoops doesn't have to answer now, and probably wouldn't anyway.

But what if his alma mater had offered him the head-coaching job back in 1998, when it was looking for a replacement for retiring Hall of Famer Hayden Fry, whom Stoops played for and coached under at Iowa? Would Stoops have taken it, and if so, would he have carved out the same legendary career at Iowa that he did at Oklahoma? And where would Kirk Ferentz have landed?

It's an interesting question, considering the fact that Ferentz has been an institution in Iowa City. He's set to enter his 22nd season at Iowa, and surpassed Fry in 2018 as the winningest coach in school history.

"Sometimes, things have a way of working out for the best for everybody involved," Stoops told ESPN.

Throughout his coaching career, Stoops has been a hot commodity. He was also one of the rare ones: Stoops stayed at Oklahoma for 18 seasons before retiring prior to the 2017 season, and he worked for the same president (David Boren) and the same athletic director (Joe Castiglione) all 18 seasons.

"I'm willing to bet you'll never see that happen again," Stoops said.

Stoops was only 38 when he took over what was a broken program at Oklahoma on Dec. 1, 1998, and led the Sooners to a national championship in his second season in 2000. But before saying yes to Oklahoma, he followed through on a promise he had made to interview with Iowa. Oklahoma had already offered Stoops the job a day earlier and didn't want him to visit with Iowa.

"I guess that was kind of naïve of me," Stoops said. "In hindsight, I'd tell any young coach out there, 'Take the Oklahoma job and don't take a chance on screwing it up.'"

Stoops, who had just finished his third season as Florida's defensive coordinator under Steve Spurrier, realized about midway through the interview with Iowa that he wasn't going to be offered the job. At least not right then.

"And I don't know if they ever would have," Stoops said.

So he politely excused himself and went to call his agent, Neil Cornrich.

"I'm pretty sure it was a pay phone. Heck, it was 1998," Stoops joked. "I just told Neil, 'Get a hold of Oklahoma and make sure they know the second I get out of this interview that I'm going to take the job.'"

And the rest, as they say, is history.

It was hardly the first time or the last time that Stoops would be courted by another school or by an NFL organization.

After his first season at Florida -- in 1996, the year the Gators won the national championship -- Minnesota tried to hire him as head coach, but there was no university president in place at the time.

"Coach Spurrier's point to me was, 'Look, we're not going bad here. If this doesn't fit you perfectly, just stay. You're young and will have other opportunities that will fit you,'" Stoops said. "And he was right."

As fate would have it, the closest Stoops said he ever came to leaving Oklahoma was after Spurrier left Florida following the 2001 season to take the Washington Redskins' head-coaching job. Jeremy Foley, then the Florida athletic director, flew to Norman to meet with Stoops.

"We'd just won the national championship at Oklahoma [in 2000], but I also had a close relationship with Jeremy Foley and [wife] Carol and I loved our time at Florida," Stoops said. "It was hard to say no, but all the positive feelings I had about Florida were countered by the positive feelings I had about Oklahoma. They gave me my first shot.

"And had it not been for the leadership and faith I had in Joe Castiglione and David Boren, in all likelihood I probably would have gone to Florida."

With Stoops saying no thanks, Florida turned to Ron Zook, who made it three years before being fired, which led to the Gators hiring Urban Meyer. Meyer won national championships in 2006 and 2008 at Florida, then resigned following the 2009 season only to change his mind and come back for the 2010 season. He then resigned for good following the 2010 season.

Once again, Foley made a hard push for Stoops, who was the epitome of consistency in Norman. He won 10 conference championships at OU, and only four times in 18 seasons on his watch did the Sooners win fewer than 10 games.

"I remember Coach Spurrier always saying that after eight or 10 years, you lose a certain percentage of the people who are supporting you," Stoops said. "After a while, people just want a change. I guess at a certain point, you feel like it's time to do something different after so many years, or you can also say that it's easier to do something different. But the hardest thing sometimes is staying and continuing and continuing to have success like we did."

Stoops has also never been one to shortchange his family. His twin sons, Isaac and Drake, were entrenched in their school in Oklahoma when Florida came calling the second time, and he simply didn't want to uproot them.

"For my family and where we were in life ... I just couldn't leave," Stoops said.

Stoops, the general manager and head coach of the XFL's Dallas Renegades, is well aware that his name will continue to pop up for every high-profile coaching job that comes open, especially now that the future of the XFL is up in the air after the league suspended operations Friday and laid off nearly all of its staff.

So, yes, there is one more "what if" for Stoops, as in what if the right coaching situation presents itself in the next year or two?

"Who knows?" Stoops said. "What I'm doing right now fits my family and fits what I want to do. It's been enjoyable, and who knows what the good Lord is going to bring to you?

"Everyone wants you to define the rest of your life at every point in your life. You just can't do it."

Bob Stoops the #1 HC on Offense (min 15 seasons)

Incredible for Stoops considering his background as a DC. Props to OSU's official website for the shoutout.

March 1, 2017

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Urban Meyer's teams have averaged 37.4 points per game over the duration of his 15-year, 194-game head coaching career. Only one other coach who has coached at least 15 seasons has had teams score more than Meyer's teams over this time: Bob Stoops; by one-tenth of a point.

Stoops has employed seven offensive coordinators over his career at Oklahoma, including Ohio State's new coordinator, Kevin Wilson. Wilson will be Meyer's seventh coordinator, and the first who was a prior head coach.

Five of Meyer's previous coordinators went on to become head coaches. All six helped Meyer's offenses and teams experience terrific successes. In six days, the Ohio State offense under Meyer and Wilson will start taking shape.

Highest Career Scoring Average (Per Game)

(Active coaches; minimum 15 seasons as FBS coach)

1. Bob Stoops Oklahoma 37.5
2. Urban Meyer Ohio State 37.4
3. Mike Leach Washington State 34.9
4. Gary Patterson TCU 33.5
5. Nick Saban Alabama 31.8

Source: STATSPASS

Dede Westbrook AP Big 12 offensive player of the year, Stoops named coach of the year

By Brooke Pryor
December 6, 2016

NORMAN — As a state, Oklahoma nearly swept the Associated Press' top four All-Big 12 postseason awards.

A day after being named a Heisman finalist, Oklahoma wide receiver Dede Westbrook was named the Big 12's offensive player of the year by the Associated Press. Coach Bob Stoops was tabbed as the conference's coach of the year for a record fifth time.

Oklahoma State Running back Justice Hill was also named the conference's newcomer of the year.

OU placed seven players on the AP's All-Big 12 first team and four more on the second team.

Westbrook was also a unanimous selection to the AP's All-Big 12 first team along with Texas' D'Onta Foreman, Kansas State defensive end Jordan Willis and West Virginia cornerback Rasul Douglas.

Quarterback Baker Mayfield, offensive tackle Orlando Brown, running back Joe Mixon, tight end/wide receiver Mark Andrews, linebacker Jordan Evans and cornerback Jordan Thomas were all named to the first team.

Running back Samaje Perine, offensive guard Ben Powers and linebacker Ogbonnia Okoronkwo were all put on the second team. Mixon also landed on the second team as an all-purpose player.

Oklahoma State was also well represented in the postseason honors, placing three — receiver James Washington, defensive tackle Vincent Taylor and safety Jordan Sterns — on the first team.

OSU also had five players on the second team: offensive tackle Victor Salako, tight end Blake Jarwin, linebacker Devante Averette, kicker Ben Grogan and punter Zach Sinor.


FIRST TEAM
OFFENSE
Quarterback — Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma
Running backs — u-D'Onta Foreman, Texas; Joe Mixon, Oklahoma
Tackles — Connor Williams, Texas; Orlando Brown, Oklahoma,
Guards — Terrale Johnson, Kansas State; Kyle Bosch, West Virginia
Center — Tyler Orlosky, West Virginia
Receivers — u-Dede Westbrook, Oklahoma; James Washington, Oklahoma State
Tight end — Mark Andrews, Oklahoma
All-purpose player — Shelton Gibson, West Virginia
Kicker — Cole Netten, Iowa State

DEFENSE
Ends — u-Jordan Willis, Kansas State; Dorance Armstrong, Kansas
Tackles — Vincent Taylor, Oklahoma State; Will Geary, Kansas State
Linebackers — Travin Howard, TCU; Elijah Lee, Kansas State; Jordan Evans, Oklahoma
Cornerbacks — u-Rasul Douglas, West Virginia; Jordan Thomas, Oklahoma
Safeties — Jordan Sterns, Oklahoma State; Orion Stewart, Baylor
Punter — Michael Dickson, Texas

SECOND TEAM
OFFENSE
Quarterback — Patrick Mahomes, Texas Tech
Running backs — Samaje Perine, Oklahoma; Justin Crawford, West Virginia
Tackles — Dalton Risner, Kansas State; Victor Salako, Oklahoma State
Guards — Ben Powers, Oklahoma; Adam Pankey, West Virginia
Center —Kyle Fuller, Baylor
Receivers — Jonathan Giles, Texas Tech; KD Cannon, Baylor
Tight end — Blake Jarwin, Oklahoma State
All-purpose player — Joe Mixon, Oklahoma
Kicker — Ben Grogan, Oklahoma St.

DEFENSE
Ends — Josh Carraway, TCU; Breckyn Hager, Texas
Tackles — Daniel Wise, Kansas; Aaron Curry, TCU
Linebackers — Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, Oklahoma; Devante Averette, Oklahoma St.; Malik Jefferson, Texas
Cornerbacks — Ranthony Texada, TCU; D.J. Reed, Kansas State
Safeties — Denzel Johnson, TCU; Fish Smithson, Kansas
Punter — Zach Sinor, Oklahoma State
___

Coach of the year — Bob Stoops, Oklahoma.
Offensive player of the year — Dede Westbrook, WR, Sr., Oklahoma.
Defensive player of the year — Jordan Willis, DE, Sr., Kansas State.
Newcomer of the year — Justice Hill, RB, Fr., Oklahoma State.

More coaches hit $3M mark

Salaries, buyout package costs rising in college football

By Steve Berkowitz, Christopher Schnaars and Brent Schroetenboer

October 27, 2016

Ten years ago, when USA TODAY Sports first tracked the compensation for major-college football head coaches, making $3 million was a singular distinction belonging to Oklahoma's Bob Stoops.

This season, there are at least 36 coaches above that threshold -- or, more than half of the 64 at schools in the five wealthiest conferences: the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Southeastern.

Leading the way is Michigan's Jim Harbaugh, whose basic annual pay is $7 million but whose total for this season is $9 million because he drew an extra $2million deferred compensation payment in June.

Defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Alabama's Nick Saban is making nearly $7 million, and Urban Meyer's pay from Ohio State this year edged just above $6million. Stoops is fourth at $5.55million.

On average, head coaches at Power Five conference schools are being paid nearly $3.5million this season. When the season began, there were 20 scheduled to be paid more than $4million, including nine of 14 in the SEC, where the median compensation is nearly $4.2million.

No college football coaches had reached $4 million prior to the 2009 season, and only eight were there as recently as 2013.

One of the nine SEC coaches above that mark this season, LSU's Les Miles, already has been fired -- and his termination pointed to another area of growth. Because he was let go for not winning enough, he was contractually set to walk away with a buyout approaching $10million prior to his obligation to find another job that would generate income offsetting what LSU owes him.

That put him among a group of 33 coaches whose buyouts were set to be at least $8million this year. The leader among that group is Florida State's Jimbo Fisher, who would be owed $33.1million prior to what the university says would be a duty to mitigate. That is slightly more than what Miami (Ohio) spent on its entire athletics program in 2014-15, the most recent year for which schools' annual financial reports to the NCAA are available.

Kirk Ferentz would be owed $25 million if Iowa fired him this year

By John Taylor

October 26, 2016

Yes indeed: if there were an Agent Hall of Fame, Neil Cornrich would be a first-ballot inductee.

Early last month, Iowa announced that it had reached an agreement with Kirk Ferentz on a new contract that runs through the 2026 season. The details of the contract, revealed as part of USA Today‘s annual coaching salary database release, negotiated by Cornrich and agreed upon by the university are staggering.

From USA Today’s report on coaching buyouts:

— Even if he’s fired after this season for not winning enough games, the 61-year-old Ferentz would be owed more than $25 million, payable in monthly installments until 2026.

— He’s guaranteed an additional $22 million from 2021 through 2025 if he sticks around and wins at least seven games each season through 2020. It wouldn’t matter if he’s dismissed in 2021 after finishing 0-12.

— If that’s not enough, those guarantees wouldn’t even be reduced if Iowa fired him and he took a lucrative new job somewhere else.

Another Cornrich client, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, would be owed nearly $25 million if he were fired today without cause. All told, there are at least seven head football coaches, the paper writes, “who would be owed at least $20 million in guaranteed money if he were fired on Dec. 1 for losing too many games.” Jimbo Fisher tops the buyout list, with Florida State on the hook for $33.1 million in the improbable event that Florida State dismisses him.

Others with the $20 million-plus golden parachute include Ohio State’s Urban Meyer ($27.4 million), Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh ($25.6 million), Alabama’s Nick Saban ($23.3 million), Clemson’s Dabo Swinney ($20 million). Another, Illinois’ Lovie Smith, is just shy of that mark at $19.3 million.

Of the four coaches already dismissed this year, Les Miles had the highest buyout with LSU owing the former coach nearly $9 million according to the paper. Darrell Hazell is due $5 million from Purdue, while Fresno State will owe Tim DeRuyter $3.3 million and FIU will shell out $609,000 to Ron Turner.

Texas will owe Charlie Strong just north of $11 million if, as expected, they fire the coach at season’s end.

The multimillion buyouts are part of a burgeoning trend all across the sport.

In 2011, there were 15 coaches with guaranteed buyouts of at least $8 million. This year, at least 33 are guaranteed that much — well more than half of the 53 publicly available coaches contracts in the Power Five conferences.

When it comes to actual salary being paid in 2016, Saban would sit atop the list at $6.9 million. However, Harbaugh is the highest-paid coach in college football at $9 million, with $5 million of that coming in salary and $4 million in the form of insurance payouts.

In 2006, the first year the USA Today database was published, there were eight head coaches making at least $2 million annually. A decade later, that number has risen to 58.

Hiring a college football coach is expensive. Firing one is, too.

(Photo: Jeffrey Becker, USA TODAY Sports)

By Brent Schrotenboer and Steve Berkowitz

October 26, 2016

On a warm, sunny day last month at the University of Iowa, head football coach Kirk Ferentz wore a white shirt and gold-striped tie to a special announcement about his future. He had just signed the deal of a lifetime — the biggest contract of his life, with enough guarantees to make him a rich man well into his retirement, win or lose.

The new contract included several generous provisions:

► Even if he’s fired after this season for not winning enough games, the 61-year-old Ferentz would be owed more than $25 million, payable in monthly installments until 2026.

► He’s guaranteed an additional $22 million from 2021 through 2025 if he sticks around and wins at least seven games each season through 2020. It wouldn’t matter if he’s dismissed in 2021 after finishing 0-12.

► If that’s not enough, those guarantees wouldn’t even be reduced if Iowa fired him and he took a lucrative new job somewhere else.

“I certainly appreciate the trust and confidence demonstrated by athletic director Gary Barta,” said Ferentz, who also thanked Iowa president Bruce Harreld.

Less than two months later, Iowa has lost three consecutive home games, adding more buzz to a popular question about contract guarantees for college coaches: Why?

Why did Iowa make Ferentz almost too expensive to fire after averaging about seven wins per season during his previous 17 years in Iowa City?
And why are schools, including Iowa, increasingly willing to provide gold-plated parachutes for coaches in an industry where their success is never guaranteed?

Harreld, the top decision-maker on Ferentz’s contract, declined comment. But the simple answer is leverage. Buoyed by rising revenues in college sports, college football coaches are getting paid more than ever, with at least 36 earning at least $3 million this year, up from nine in 2011 and one in 2006 — the first year USA TODAY Sports conducted the head coaches salary survey. They also have more bargaining power than ever and are using it to guarantee their pay at unprecedented levels to match.


From the schools’ viewpoint, that means the potential price of failure has skyrocketed, according to a USA TODAY Sports analysis of hundreds of coaches’ contracts obtained over several years.

Ferentz is one of at least seven football coaches who would be owed at least $20 million in guaranteed money if he were fired on Dec. 1 for losing too many games — a list led by Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher, whose buyout this year would be a little more than $33 million. In 2011, there were 15 coaches with guaranteed buyouts of at least $8 million. This year, at least 33 are guaranteed that much — well more than half of the 53 publicly available coaches contracts in the Power Five conferences.

The bargaining table

The buyout boom isn’t just caused by the rising pay market, experts say. In some cases, schools appear to be getting out-leveraged in contract negotiations by coaches and their agents, perhaps because multi-year contract signings are usually sunshiny occasions. With so much optimism in the air at the time, schools might not be considering the dark possibility that the honeymoon might not last.

“There’s such tremendous pressure to generate revenues and win that basically these universities are sort of bending over contractually to get these coaches in the door,” said Martin Greenberg, a Milwaukee-based sports attorney who has represented several coaches in contract negotiations. “Euphoria sometimes overtakes objectivity and intelligence.”

There generally are two types of firings in college sports:

► Those fired for legal cause, such as breaking the law or major NCAA rules. In these cases, coaches generally aren’t entitled to additional guaranteed money.

► Those fired for losing too many games — which almost always entitles coaches to additional guaranteed money from schools according to their contracts. This is the most common type of firing (17 of 33 coaching changes since the start of the 2015 season), and the terms of divorce are usually set before marriage or renewed vows during contract negotiations, as they were with Ferentz’s guarantees.

“We’re going to call that a sweetheart deal” for Ferentz, Greenberg said.

Many others could be described the same way, and arguably for good reason: Coaches are helping drive those rising revenues. With contract guarantees, coaches also taking what they can get from the market and ensuring themselves some stability in an otherwise turbulent profession.
Consider Texas, where many are speculating about the future of Charlie Strong, whose record in three seasons is 14-18. If he’s fired in December, Strong would be owed more than $11 million. By contrast, Strong’s predecessor at Texas, Mack Brown, never had a potential buyout larger than $3.5 million from 1998 until his resignation in 2013.

Coaches these days “are in the driver’s seat,” Stanford economist Roger Noll told USA TODAY Sports.

On the other side of the bargaining table, schools are taking on even more risk with these contracts — at least until they decide they can’t. Just ask Kansas, which recently bucked the big buyout trend after getting snake-bit by it several times.

Learning the hard way

It started in 2001, when Kansas fired coach Terry Allen with one year left on his contract at an annual salary of $320,000.

Since then, the Jayhawks have paid three coaches not to coach.

► In 2009, one year after Kansas' last winning season, coach Mark Mangino received a $3 million settlement from KU after quitting amid allegations that he mistreated players. The settlement helped KU avoid a fight for the $6.6 million Mangino would have been owed if he were fired without legal cause.

► Coach Turner Gill succeeded him and went 5-19 in two seasons before KU fired him in 2011 and bought out the remaining $6 million left on his contract.

► KU then turned to Charlie Weis, the industry legend for making a living off of getting fired. Before KU, Notre Dame terminated Weis after a 6-6 season in 2009 and subsequently paid him more than $16 million to settle his contract, with a final payment remaining at the end of 2015.

At KU, Weis did it again. He compiled a 6-22 record before getting fired in 2014 with more than $5.4 million still owed to him in monthly installments, the last of which is due in December.

To replace Weis, KU hired David Beaty and this time drastically changed the buyout provisions in the school’s favor.

If he’s fired for losing, Beaty’s buyout is to be no larger than two years’ pay ($1.6 million total), according to his contract. He also would be required to seek “similar or related employment” and reduce his buyout from Kansas by the amount of pay he receives at his new job — a contract provision that is common in college football but also negotiable.

Beaty’s record at KU so far is 1-18.

Kansas officials declined comment on the contract through a spokesman.

But there’s still a tradeoff for the Jayhawks, no matter how sensible Beaty’s contract might seem for them. Such deals won’t attract the kind of big-splash hire they might have wanted instead — the kind that Michigan got in late 2014.

Star coaches in demand

With $9 million owed him this year, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is the highest paid coach in the 2016 USA TODAY Sports survey of publicly available contracts. He’s at the top, in large part, because he has huge leverage, an example of why schools fawn over star coaches and give them much of what they ask for during contract negotiations.

All schools want a coach like him — somebody who can turn a flat brand name into a shiny national power practically overnight.

“There are lots of coaches, but not all are able to win and generate money,” said Greenberg, who has written about coaches’ buyouts for the Marquette Sports Law Review. “That’s where the leverage is.”

Before Harbaugh, Michigan had sagged to a 5-7 season under Brady Hoke, who was owed $3 million for his termination in 2014.

After hiring Harbaugh, Michigan’s football team has become an undefeated, top-two program and likely an even bigger cash cow after contributing $88 million of the athletic department’s $152 million revenues in the fiscal year ending in June 2015.

The problem for schools is that there’s a very limited supply of coaches of this caliber.

“Part of what is going on is the iron law that only 25 schools can rank in the top 25,” said Noll, the Stanford economist. Yet there are 128 teams in major college football. About 20 coaches are capable of being consistently in the top 25, Noll estimated, with about 50 to 75 programs able to generate enough revenue to be among the bidders for one of these coaches.

So the bidding increases, bringing the rest of the market up with them as each school chases more wins and more revenue with more spending.

“Coaches are better positioned in today’s market to negotiate guaranteed deals,” attorneys Russ Campbell and Patrick Strong said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports. They would know. Their firm, Balch Sports, has negotiated more than $350 million in coaching contracts since 2007.

The agent factor

No other major college head football coaches have been at the same schools longer than Ferentz and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, both of whom were hired at their respective schools in late 1998.

The two happen to be friends and share the same agent: Neil Cornrich, who is based in suburban Cleveland.

They also have two of the top buyouts in the nation at about $25 million each, a byproduct of their recent success and the stability they’ve brought to their programs.

Cornrich declined to comment on contract negotiations but made a case for why the relatively long tenures of Ferentz and Stoops have added value to their schools.

“It’s important to understand the continuity, stability, and branding that they have provided,” Cornrich told USA TODAY Sports. “People have grown up with Bob Stoops and Kirk Ferentz being the only coaches at their respective institutions for their entire lives. That creates substantial additional value, especially when both coaches have been so successful, on and off the field.”

He noted that “coaches are the people who are producing the revenue” and their compensation reflects “the value being added and the very few people who can consistently add that value.”

Ferentz’s new contract this year comes on the heels of a 12-2 season last year, after finishing 19-19 the previous three years.

If Iowa had insisted that Ferentz’s buyout provisions be less generous, it’s hard to say what Ferentz would have done instead, though he has been mentioned for other jobs in previous years. Unlike at many other universities, the board of regents that oversees the University of Iowa does not review or approve coaching contracts as a matter of policy. Some say such oversight is necessary because these contracts involve such huge financial commitments.

“This might be a very good wakeup call to the board to be more proactive to ensure they can exercise their fiduciary responsibilities in a more robust way,” said Michael Poliakoff, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), a nonprofit committed to accountability in higher education.

The Board of Regents for the State of Iowa delegates this oversight at Iowa to President Harreld, who was hired last year.

“Even if the board delegates it authority, it can’t delegate its responsibilities,” said Armand Alacbay, ACTA’s vice president of trustee & legislative affairs. “It does so at its own peril.”

Ferentz and Iowa athletic director Barta declined comment to USA TODAY Sports through a spokesman.

Whatever happens, rising revenues still might be able to cover much of Iowa’s rising costs, even if a hefty buyout is in order. Iowa’s Big Ten Conference distributed roughly $34.6 million to each of its 11 longest-standing members during the fiscal year ending in June 2016 and is projected to distribute more than $38 million in 2016-17.

That’s expected to go up even more with a new television deal with Fox and ESPN.

“If you don’t have a buyout in a contract,” Barta told reporters last month, “it’s not a long-term contract.”