My son called me last night from Denver and told me Mike Stoops was fired on Sunday after the OU defense was absolutely abysmal against a Texas offense which could only score 10 points the previous week against a feeble Kansas State team. Ten points.
I shrugged and asked, “So…who’s taking over the defense?”
He says,”Bob Diaco.”
I say,” What has Bob Diaco ever done with any defense at a Power 5 level?”
My son didn’t know. So I researched Bob Diaco a bit and discovered he was at Nebraska last season and was fired by Scott Frost when Frost was hired to rebuild a moribund Nebraska Cornhusker football program. He also coordinated defenses for Brian Kelly at both Cincy and Notre Dame. Like Bob Stoops, he played his college football at Iowa.
Not exactly a resume which leads me to believe OU’s defense will rise from being the 96th ranked defense in the country when they play against quality opposition.
But I guess at the end of the day Lincoln Riley had no choice in that the Sooner defense was so putrid on Saturday inside the Cotton Bowl he maybe figured he could make Sarah Palin or Mary Fallin his defensive coordinator and it might be an upgrade. OU was that bad on Saturday from a physicality and tackling standpoint. Any freshman high school coach in America would have been embarrassed with that performance.
The good news for Bob Diaco or Ruffin McNeil or both is that OU only has to face one more quality offense this season when they travel to play West Virginia in Morgantown. Texas Tech is always a challenge, but Kyler Murray and Co. should hang close to 70 points on both Texas Tech and O State this season. TCU at Forth Worth in two weeks could be the toughest challenge otherwise.
The new goal for OU is to get into the Big 12 Championship Game and maybe play itself into a top six bowl game. OU is not going to the national football playoff and neither is any other Big 12 team.
Maybe playing Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game would be fun.
Maybe OU would have a chance if they learn how to tackle in the next two months. Maybe the new coordinator could tell them to get more physical and maybe hit someone in the mouth. Football isn’t a contact sport, it’s a collision sport like hockey. Dancing is a contact activity…if you know what I mean.
This is why Bob Stoops should never have brought his brother back. The appearance of nepotism is not what you need at the highest level of DI coaching. You need teaching and motivation.
I wonder what’s going through Brent Venables’ mind this morning. His wife is probably smiling in a knowing manner if you know what I mean.
So….Bob Diaco and Ruffin McNeil will now coach the OU defense.
You know who Ruffin McNeil is, right?
He was the assistant coach at Texas Tech who replaced Mike Leach’s D coordinator the day after O State torched the Red Raiders in Stillwater in that historic game in which after the game Mike Gundy shared with the world the thought he was forty and a man.
“I’m forty, I’m a man…come after me!” Who does this Midwest City dude think he is….Frank Sinatra or something?
While Gundy was doing that in his presser this was what Mike Leach was doing in his presser.
Mike Leach fired his D coordinator the next day.
You think Lincoln Riley was thinking of this at all when he fired Mike Stoops yesterday?
Maybe what Riley should do is hire the K State D coordinator who held Texas to 10 points the previous week
That was nuanced sarcasm….kind of.
Sigh. Mike Gundy was given a $625,000 dollar raise last off season after losing the three games on his schedule which were against quality teams. Tell me what is wrong in America currently…seriously.