Candidates to replace Stoops

Since many of you are clamoring for Stoops hide after the 3-3 start to the year, I thought we would take a few minutes to examine the potential replacements.

Oklahoma ties

• Josh Heupel - he hasn't even been a unit coordinator, but he was like a coach on the field for two years. The last time we hired a position coach with on coordinating experience, it didn't turn out so well.
• Kevin Sumlin - 2-0 against Big 12 schools this year, but winless against UTEP.
• Mike Stoops - Sooner program hasn't been the same since he left. Surely the losing record over 5 years is an aberration, and he'd be a juggernaut at OU right after we canned his brother.
• Mark Mangino - this is a no-brainer. Mangino is the first coach to win 40 games at Lawrence and have a winning record since Bert Kennedy hit that milestone. In 1909. Never mind that many believe that Heupel changed all Mangino's plays in the 2000 march to the championship.
• Mike Shanahan - Coached for one year at OU in the 70s. Been living off of Switzer's rep ever since. Immediately available. I bet he'd turn down the Dallas Cowboy job for a chance to coach in Norman again. hasn't coached at the collegiate level since 1983.
• Mike Leach - instrumental in recruiting Josh Heupel, which was key in turning around the program. Some say he's taken Tech to new heights, other say he's just scheduled easier non conference foes.

Regional Ties

• Art Briles - never beaten Texas. Can't keep his quarterback healthy either, which can be a contributor to success, from what I understand.
• Todd Graham - knows Texas high school football, since he coached there earlier this decade. 1-0 against Bronco Mendenhall, but 0-2 in Conference USA championship games.
• Major Applewhite - Texas did alright hiring one of our former QBs back in the day. Very inexperienced.
  

Many of you are tired of losing to Texas. Here's a list of coaches that are undefeated against Texas (not all-inclusive).

• Bob Toledo - 2-0 against Texas, outscoring them 115-34. Also undefeated against Texas A&M. Unfortunately, he's also winless against the following schools: Alabama-Birmingham, Army, East Carolina.
• Mike Belotti - 1-0 against Texas, but now retired.
• Ron Prince - 1-0 against Mack Brown. Available as soon as the Virgina staff gets fired at the end of the season.

Others want a big splash from a national name, let's look at the options:

• Ty Willingham - known for turning around programs. If you want to go that direction.
• Nick Saban - Never been at one post for longer than 5 years. After 3 years, he's due for a change. Conversely, he's 0-1 against Texas, and 0-2 against Nebraska, being outscored 105-24 by the Bugeaters.
• Brian Kelly - is 27-6 at Cincinnati. On the downside, he's doing this in the Big East. His record while at Central Michigan and Cincy against BCS auto qualifiers: 2-9, with the both wins coming against Oregon State.
• Pete Carroll / Urban Meyer - I'm sure these gentlemen are tired of staying in state and recruiting top notch talent without ever getting on a plane. I bet both are tired of being so close to the water, they probably wish to be closer to the fruited plains.
• Charlie Strong - Very successful d-coordinator of Florida. I'm sure the Oklahoma Sooner faithful will embrace his interracial marriage. Push my skepticism of Sooner football fans open-mindedness aside, I think he's one of the more viable candidates for a head coaching job.
• Chris Petersen - let's take a look at his predecessors. Dirk Koetter was 26-10 at Boise State and 40-34 at Arizona State. Dan Hawkins was 53-11 at Boise and 15-28 since. Petersen is 41-4 at Boise. Was he really the reason his two predecessors were successful, or is it just that he's in the WAC? How much do you want to pay to find out?

Let's face it. You can't name a single coach that you can guarantee 1) would come to Norman; 2) would have better results than Coach Stoops; 3) will run a clean program. How do you know you're going to get an upgrade. Texas was convinced they could do better than Fred Akers 73% winning percentage. Twelve years and two coaches later, they got what they wanted. LSU ran off Mike Archer for winning 60% of his games and 14 years later got their man in Nick Saban. Stoops has won 80.5% of his games. Not many are going to improve on that.