Robert Anthony Stoops (born September 9, 1960) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Arlington Renegades. He was the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1999 through the 2016 season, and on an interim basis during the 2021 Alamo Bowl. He led the Oklahoma Sooners to a record of 191–48 over his career. His 2000 Oklahoma Sooners football team won the 2001 Orange Bowl, which served as the BCS National Championship Game, and earned a consensus national championship. Since 2020, Stoops has been a head coach with the XFL, coaching the Renegades in 2020 and has been re-signed for 2023. Stoops' Renegades won the XFL Championship in 2023.
Stoops played college football at the University of Iowa as a defensive back from 1979 to 1982. Prior to his tenure at Oklahoma, he held various assistant coaching positions at the University of Iowa, Kent State University, Kansas State University, and the University of Florida. Stoops was awarded the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award in 2000 and the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award in both 2000 and 2003. Stoops has been nicknamed "Big Game Bob" by both supporters and detractors.
Stoops was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2021.
High school and college
Stoops is one of six children born to Ron Sr. and Evelyn "Dee Dee" Stoops in Youngstown, Ohio. He is a 1978 graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School, where his father was the long-time defensive coordinator of the football team. Bob and his three brothers (Ron Jr., Mike, and Mark) were all coached by Ron Sr. at Mooney. During a game in 1988 against the team coached by Ron Jr., Ron Sr. began experiencing chest pains. He was placed in an ambulance following the game and died en route to the hospital.
While at Iowa, Stoops was a four-year starter, and one-time All-Big Ten selection at defensive back at the University of Iowa. He was named Team MVP in 1982.
Coaching career
Assistant coach
After graduating with a marketing degree in 1983, Stoops began his coaching career as a volunteer coach and graduate assistant in the Iowa Hawkeyes program under Hayden Fry. He next was an assistant at Kent State University under Dick Crum in 1988, and then joined the coaching staff at Kansas State University the following year. Stoops was named co-defensive coordinator at Kansas State under Bill Snyder in 1991 and assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator in 1995. During his tenure on the Wildcats staff, Stoops played a key role in their impressive turnaround, helping take what many considered to be the worst program in Division I-A to national contention. During his final four seasons there, Kansas State was 35–12 with three bowl appearances.
Stoops then left for the University of Florida, serving three years as Steve Spurrier's defensive coordinator. Hired after Florida allowed 62 points to Nebraska in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, he was granted authority over the Gators defense; the team responded by winning the national championship over Florida State in the 1997 Sugar Bowl.
Due to his success leading defenses at Kansas State and Florida, Stoops was mentioned as a future head coach.
Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma named Stoops its head coach in 1999. OU won seven games in Stoops' first year, taking the Sooners to their first bowl game since the 1994 season.
In his 18 years as head coach of the Sooners, Stoops had a combined record of 190–48 (). On November 16, 2013, Stoops notched his 157th win as Oklahoma's head coach with a victory over Iowa State, tying him with Barry Switzer for the most wins in Sooners history. A week later, on November 23, 2013, he surpassed Switzer's record with a 41–31 victory over Kansas State. Stoops accumulated a home winning streak of 39 consecutive games from 2005 to 2011. The streak was ended on October 22, 2011 when Texas Tech defeated Oklahoma 41–38. He also had the most wins of the decade of any BCS school with 110 (2000–2009). Along with Switzer, Bud Wilkinson and Bennie Owen, he is one of four coaches to win over 100 games at the University of Oklahoma; no other college football program has had more than three coaches accomplish such a feat. Overall, Oklahoma was 4–6 in BCS games and 9–9 in bowl games under Stoops. Stoops, along with Bill Snyder of Kansas State, were among the first to use the JUCO systems of their respective states to help their programs progress.