With the announcement that Bob Stoops is stepping down as Oklahoma’s football coach it leaves a lot of questions that need to be answered. From what this means to the future of Sooners football, to how will new head coach Lincoln Riley do at the helm this year, Oklahoma fans have much to be concerned about.
Then there is the worrying about what Stoops retirement means to the kids who have verbally committed to the program. Where will these athletes fall now that a coach they said they’d commit to will not be there when they step on to campus?
At first glance, fans shouldn’t worry about the next wave of Sooners to flee with Riley as the new head coach. “All the better,” Oklahoma quarterback commit Tanner Mordecai told 247Sports. The 6-foot-2, 213-pound Mordecai gave his pledge to Stoops, Riley and company last Thursday in becoming the latest member of a recruiting class that currently ranks No. 18 nationally. “Not worried about it all.”
“I’m excited,” Mordecai said. “Coach Stoops was one of the best coaches ever to coach this sport and I think Coach Riley can do the same.
“He’s a genius,” Mordecai continued. “Coach Stoops obviously believed in him with all his heart and he groomed him to be the head coach.” (247 Sports)
However, not all of the commits for 2018 share that same sentiment for the new coach. TJ Pledger posted on his Twitter timeline just a question mark with the Stoops retirement story linked to it from Bleacher Report. The four-star recruit committed to the Sooners in March, after visiting Ohio State, and getting offers from Texas, USC, and West Virginia, to name just a few schools that have extended an offer to him.
With eight verbally committing to the team, Oklahoma has a good start to 2018. However, someone like four-star Cypress, TX’s Starrland Baldwin committing on May 11th, it may open a door for Kevin Sumlin and Texas A&M to re-start a conversation to see where his mind is at with Stoops now gone.
Baldwin has seemed to decline to give his thoughts on the Stoops retirement with this tweet.
There is still a lot of time until National Signing Day in 2018. The new coach could come in and continue the dominance in the Big 12 set by Stoops which would keep the shit afloat. If this happens, then Sooners fans will not worry about how the pipeline from elite level of high school talent to Norman, OK will be.
However, if the team struggles this year, Sooners fans may see that seamless transition from one class to another stop, and have their endless pool of four and five-star recruits run dry.
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