Mark Stoops was caught off-guard by brother Bob’s retirement
Bob Stoops’s sudden retirement as Oklahoma Sooners head football coach caught pretty much everyone by surprise — including his own brother.
Mark Stoops, who coaches the Kentucky Wildcats, said at SEC Media Day that even he had little advance warning of Bob’s decision.
“I had really no idea it was coming, but he called me and told me what was going to happen in the very near future,” Mark Stoops said, via Bryan Fischer of College Football Talk. “And it was a bit of a shock to me to be honest with you. I had to walk out of my office and walk around the practice field. And that’s where I had that conversation with him away from everybody. So I was shocked. Mixed emotions, I guess you would say from myself. Very proud of him, what he’s done, and very happy for him and Carol and his family, to be able to step away when he wants, how he wants. And that’s Bob.
“I think it was very important for him to walk away with a good football team with a chance to win his league and get in the playoffs and hand off a program that he took so much pride in building. So I have mixed emotions about it still, but proud of him and hope the very best for him.”
Bob Stoops’s retirement caught everyone off guard. The fact that his own brother didn’t see it coming tells you just how quietly the decision was made.
