Bob Stoops worked with brother Mike for five years at Oklahoma. Photo by Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said his brother Mike Stoops was hit by a “perfect storm,” which led to Mike’s dismissal as the Arizona Wildcats’ head coach on Monday.
“It’s really unfortunate and it always hurts when you are close to someone and this happens,” Bob said at his weekly news conference in Norman.
“He just kind of hit a perfect storm. They had injuries early, actually before the season started — so kind of playing short-handed, and then you play three of the first four games against top 10 teams between Oregon, Stanford and Oklahoma State. So you kind of get beat up some more, or you get demoralized, and it’s just kind of hard to recover.
“It’s unfortunate, but I know he gave it his heart and soul for sure, and that’s all you can do.”
Mike coached under Bob as Oklahoma’s co-defensive coordinator from 1999 to 2003 before taking the job at Arizona.
Would Bob take him back if he had an opening at Oklahoma?
“Sure, if I’ve got enough money to,” Bob said. “He’s going to have a lot of opportunities, I know that.”
The Stoops family is close friends with the Pelini family of coaches, dating to their days growing up in Youngstown, Ohio.
Nebraska coach Bo Pelini was asked about the firing of Mike Stoops on Tuesday’s Big Ten coaches teleconference.
“I think it’s ridiculous, especially considering where that program was when he took over and what he brought it to,” Pelini said.
“People criticize coaches for their lack of loyalty or whatever, but the reality is, look what happened to him. Loyalty goes both ways, you know what I’m saying.”