Lincoln Riley has always had the luxury of assets as Oklahoma’s head football coach. The Sooner headman has been able to rely upon some of the best facilities in the nation, an alumni base with deep pockets, and he frequently sells the rich tradition of the program to recruits with the help of current and past NFL stars. One resource he had yet to use was his previous boss who still roams the luxury suites at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. That all changed this week when Riley asked Bob Stoops to step out of the suites and back onto the field.
Pitching in for a depleted coaching staff due to COVID-19 testing and tracing, Stoops put the coaching visor back on one more time and everyone seemed to have enjoyed it.
“Actually we brought Coach Stoops out of retirement today,” Riley said during his Tuesday media session. “It’s nice! It’s kind of been in our hip pocket this whole time,” Riley clarified, “you know, if we had any staff member that fell off, I mean, we’ve got a hall of famer sitting on the bench. So that’s a pretty good bench when you can call that guy up.”
It’s unclear at this point who Coach Stoops was subbing for but it is clear that he was welcomed back to the field with open arms and appreciation.
“More than that (Stoops’ availability), just how much he cares about the program and I don’t think there’s anything that he wouldn’t do so it was great to have him out there today,” Riley said. “It was awesome. Our kids were excited to see him, all of us were excited to see him, so I think he had some fun as well.”
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