Stepping down after 18 years as the head football coach here at Oklahoma, and I feel like I've absolutely been the luckiest, most fortunate guy in the world.
— Bob Stoops
Everyone has to earn their money one way or the other.
The fact is I gave everything I had to Kansas State when I was there.
I think every league is good. Every league is pretty much the same: You got your top teams that are all very good, you got middle of the road teams that are really good and then you got your bottom of leagues that are all kind if fighting to get really good. I think it's pretty much the same across the board; I've said that for a long time.
I know what really matters in my life.
Sometimes people want change just to change. It doesn't mean it's going to be better.
I love college football. I love the game.
Any time you experience adversity, whether you lose a game or maybe have an official who makes a poor call that costs you the game, you've gotta handle yourself properly. Just like in life, not everything will go your way.
Sam Bradford was one of the most humble and grounded players I've ever been around; he got it. But I even told him, what makes you think those fans in the stands are wearing No.14 for you? Who says it's not an old Josh Heupel jersey?
It's a life issue more than anything when you're dealing with racism anywhere... It's a life issue - bigger than sports, bigger than football.
The characteristic that every college football coach should look for in a wife is independence.
Everyone wants you to define your life until the end of your life.
No matter how angry people on the outside were when you don't perform well, a coach is 10 times what anyone else is feeling. Nothing digs at you more. But that's part of our business.
It's impossible to remove agendas.
You don't really want to play your brother. You want to play your brother in a championship game because not only does someone lose, someone's going to win a championship, too. To me, that's the only time you're really looking to do it.
Anytime you win 10 games, let's look around the world, the country, and there's not a lot that do it consistently.
Our players are educated. They know. If you knowingly break the rules, we're going to move on. We'll find someone else to play quarterback.
You've got to put the work in every week. You can't take anything for granted.
Coach Spurrier, without question, has been the biggest influence to me, next to my father.
Anytime we lose a game, there it goes. The roller coaster's going down.
Sometimes you get in life something you don't like... you have to do something different.
I have a very strong faith.
I may have to buy an RV and learn how to tailgate and get the charcoal going.
Yeah, I've never tailgated.
I think all coaches look at it as a major part of our job: to build young men, not just ball players. To put the right things in front of them, and help them mature as men, not just as players.
The coaching life is like a relay race and I'm thankful for my turn and am confident as I pass the baton.
I have this routine where on Fridays I sign balls that need to be autographed. One time, after my fortieth or fiftieth ball, I looked over at my secretary and said, 'Who is Bob Stoops, anyway?'
Football is all about repetition. The trick for a coach is to be innovative when you ask for it.
I'm not looking to coach in Chicago.
Carl Pendleton's the absolute best. He's everything you want in a student-athlete.
Surely, AP or the coaches are all aware everybody has agendas. Anybody who's on TV has one. You know, that's viewership and ratings and those kinds of things.
It definitely gives you a boost away from home and being down and coming back.
At the end of the day, if someone tries to conceal something they will, and when you find out, you deal with it. That's it. We can't possibly know everything that happens.
I love Jim Tressel. I think he's a fabulous guy. He's overall been a strong example for all coaches.
Big 12 Championship is, to me, it's always your primary goal to start with because it's not easy to do.
Just being in the locker room as a young person growing up was something I've always enjoyed, without ever having it forced upon me.
I've got great respect for all the teams in the SEC as well as the Big 12, the Big Ten, on and on.
Patty Gasso is the best. I think she's awesome.
When people ask me where I'm from I say I'm from Oklahoma.
I can't remember the last time I've been to a football game as a spectator.
It's very rewarding when you know you're affecting a young person in a positive way, when you know you're helping influence them in the right direction. Teaching them by example, giving them examples, showing humility and respect and love for your child and wife.
Coaches around the country are influencing the next generation of men in a positive way.
Spend a day around my players, around my African-American players, my Hispanic players, my Polynesian players, and you'll see the true beauty of who they are.
I was an undersized, undertalented defensive back. I knocked myself out multiple times running into people. I ended my career without an anterior cruciate ligament. I still don't have one. At a certain point, you realize: I've used up all I've got.
In the end, everybody's life's different. Some things fit certain ways for people, and it's right, and maybe it isn't for others.
This game we play is the ultimate total team game. Quarterback by himself isn't winning it. You got 11-12 coaches, you've got a lot of people that have a hand in it.
If you keep hanging on to something, you've got an opportunity to keep getting hurt by it.
Every now and then a little bit of change never hurts.
No, I'm never pleased if we don't win some type of championship, meaning Big 12 or national.
It's impossible to know what everyone does behind closed doors. Even in families, you don't know sometimes what's going on.
