NORMAN, Okla.—Like Colorado coach Dan Hawkins, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops has two sons. But neither of Stoops’ twin boys are his starting quarterback.
The idea of duplicating Colorado—where Hawkins’ son, Cody, is the first-year starter at quarterback—doesn’t sound so bad to Stoops, though.
“I admire Dan for that and I think it’d be tough with all the scrutiny and opinion out there,” Stoops said. “Just knowing Dan a little bit and being around him, I’m sure he’ll handle it as well as anyone can. I think it’s great to have a chance to see your son every day and to be in competitive situations with him would be pretty neat.”
While Stoops’ father was a high-school coach, he calls that “a totally different situation, and so I don’t think there’s anything really to compare it that way.”
“My father, we didn’t talk football at home. That wasn’t what it was about. People think he leads you to all this. He never forced us into anything,” said Stoops, whose brothers Mike and Mark both coach at Arizona.
“I think what’s natural—the same thing, I’m sure, with Dan—is when you’re around, when you follow your dad around and he’s in competitive situations all the time, I think it rubs off on you. You get kind of addicted to that and you like it, and I think it naturally happens without your dad having to force it on you.”
Asked whether he’d still be coaching when it’s time for his 7-year-old sons to play college football, Stoops, 47, said: “Hopefully not. I’ll be sitting there hopefully in a booth with (radio play-by-play announcer) Bob Barry talking about it.”
He later said he hadn’t really considered how long he’d coach, and was more concerned with getting through the No. 3 Sooners’ game this week at Colorado.
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CASTING CALL:@ Defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, who missed the Utah State game with a broken right hand, has a new cast that allows him to flex his wrist.
“It helped out a lot,” said McCoy, who had one tackle for a loss against Tulsa. “It went well.”
McCoy said he can’t grab with his hand, but that’s the only way the cast restricts him. During the day, McCoy said he’ll simply tape two of his fingers together, but he wears the cast during practice, games and when he’s lifting weights.
“Coach told me, ‘Don’t let nothing hold you back. Just keep playing.’ My mother always told me that too. So did my father: ‘Just keep on going,'” McCoy said.
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EXTRA POINTS:@ After missing only two of his 100 extra-point attempts in his first two seasons at Oklahoma, kicker Garrett Hartley has missed three tries already this season.
So what’s going on?
“The kid’s tired,” Stoops deadpanned. “You notice when all those have happened? It’s after about nine kickoffs and I don’t know how many touchdowns.”
Hartley’s misses came after the Sooners’ sixth touchdown against Miami and the seventh touchdown against both Utah State and Tulsa. Overall, he’s 31-for-34 this season and ranks seventh in Oklahoma history with 129 extra points made in his career.
“I know one of them here, the hold was a bit away from him, where he had to swing out at it and pushed it. The other night, he felt he just stabbed at it,” Stoops said. “And again, when you get a huge bulk of them, it’s going to happen from time to time. Hopefully it won’t again, or it won’t in an important situation.”
Hartley is 3-for-4 on field goal attempts, including a 53-yarder against Utah State that’s the longest of his career. But the short kicks have proved problematic.
“It doesn’t take much. You’re off a little fraction, and it shows up,” Stoops said. “It doesn’t take much either way for it to go wrong.”
