Bob Stoops Reminds Oklahomans Why 'Lincoln Riley Didn't Invent OU Football'

On OU Day at the Capitol, the House of Representatives honored Stoops, who said he felt like a "fish out of water" and would have had little success without a team around him.

Bob Stoops said Tuesday during a stopover at the State Capitol that his “primary mission” when he came back as interim coach in Decmeber was to remind them that Lincoln Riley “didn’t invent OU football.”

House Resolution 1020 was adopted without objection to “celebrate and commend” Bob Stoops. Stoops, saying he felt like a “fish out of water” on Capitol Hill, recounted for the Oklahoma House of Representatives that bleak day in late November.

“My first mission,” he said, “was to remind everybody — players, community, everybody art the university — that Lincoln Riley didn’t invent OU football. Everybody needed a little wake-up call. Because they kind of slipped into thinking he did. And I sure as heck didn’t either.”

Stoops went on to praise those who did elevate the program, like Bennie Owen and Bud Wilkinson and Barry Switzer, and turned it into “a monster” that he and others simply had to feed.

“I’ve been the lucky one,” Stoops said, “to have been here all this time.’

Stoops also reaffirmed for OU fans his stringent belief that Riley’s successor will elevate the program even more.

“I’m so excited about what our future looks like,” Stoops said. “Brent Venables is absolutely the right guy. The guy has got a track record of success.”

Stoops also said the success he had himself was due to a talented team around him.

“You talk about an absolute fish out of water,” Stoops said as he opened his comments. “I’d so, so rather be in the middle of the Cotton Bowl fighting Texas for four hours than to be here being recognized by myself. I’ll be the first to tell you, I did nothing alone. My team, my players were the absolute best. Any team around you, they make you.”

Similarly, Venables has surrounded himself with talented coaches and support staff.

“People forget when we arrived in ’98, we hadn’t had a winning record in six years here at Oklahoma,” Stoops said. “Brent was a major part of that. He’s got all the experience in the world. I don’t need to tell you about his passion and his energy. It oozes all over the place and infects everybody. So I promise you, we are in great, great hands and I look forward to the future in a very positive way.”