Could Stoops have coached for Texas?

By JEFF LATZKE

Published October 9, 2008 at 12:50 p.m.

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NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops still remembers, perhaps not so fondly, the day when he decided to go work for Texas.

Except that wasn't actually the case. A year before he left Florida to become the Sooners' head coach, Stoops was surprised to find out that news reports said he was destined for the Longhorns.

"I was supposed to be going to work for Texas when I was at Florida. My wife saw that on the news when I was out recruiting and was shocked when I walked in the door that I didn't tell her," Stoops said. "They said I was going to be Texas' defensive coordinator with my good friend, Mack Brown, who I didn't even know."

Stoops said he knew of Brown, but had "no real relationship" with the former North Carolina coach who was hired by the Longhorns in 1998.

At the time, Stoops was a rising star in the profession as the defensive coordinator for Steve Spurrier at Florida, which had won the national championship in 1996.

"It took me aback too. I didn't know what to make of it," Stoops said. "I thought Spurrier might have fired me."

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COTTON BOWL CHANGES:@ The top-ranked Sooners and No. 5 Longhorns will find about 16,000 more fans in the stands when they play at the Cotton Bowl on Saturday after a $57 million renovation to bring the Dallas stadium into the 21st century.

In addition to the seating capacity — and the seats themselves — the changes include wider concourses, more bathrooms, and new locker rooms and media areas.

"I think it's great the changes they've made. I have not seen them, but I've heard it looks great and I'm sure it will add to the excitement and the atmosphere," Stoops said.

The Red River Rivalry is under contract to be played at the Cotton Bowl until 2015, although the schools have considered moving it to the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium or to a home-and-home rotation.

Stoops said there are positives to those options, and to the unrivaled pageantry of the game being played in the middle of the State Fair of Texas.

"I think it's exciting to be in there with half of it burnt orange and half of it crimson. That part's exciting," Stoops said.

"But in the end, I understand the business side of everything. Look, if our administrators — both for us and Texas — feel that it's better to do something different, then that's up to them to make those decisions, and I'll be all for whatever they felt. They have a broader look than I do on what's best for the university and our programs, and I trust that."

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BRADFORD'S GAME:@ Much has been made of quarterback Sam Bradford's skills as a multi-sport star at Putnam City North High School, where he played golf and basketball in addition to football.

But after playing basketball on Bradford's team, receiver Juaquin Iglesias — who averaged 17 points as a starter on his Killeen High School basketball team — said not to get too carried away with the quarterback's hoops ability.

"People try to say he's all this in basketball, but he's a football player for a reason," Iglesias said. "We're going to leave it at that."

Bradford averaged 18.4 points and 10.5 rebounds in his senior year of high school.

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GRESHAM'S RIVALRY:@ As an Ardmore native, tight end Jermaine Gresham always used to watch the Oklahoma-Texas rivalry games but never really bought into all the hype.

"Growing up, it really wasn't that big of a thing to me. But playing two games in it has kind of changed me over to it. It's really a big deal. You see the fans here and when you cross that Red River, you see the fans down there wearing the burnt orange," Gresham said.

"It's personal, I guess you could say. It's a big game."

Gresham caught two passes — both of them for touchdowns — in last year's 28-21 win by the Sooners, flashing an upside-down "Hook 'Em Horns" signal after one of the scores.

After he was involved in a pregame confrontation between the Sooners and Washington, Gresham wouldn't say whether he thought there'd be a similar shouting match in the tunnel for this game.

"I'm just trying to make it to the field. That tunnel is pretty narrow with two teams in there with the band, the cows and the horses and everything. It's crazy," Gresham said.

"I'm just trying to make it to that field because the locker rooms are right there next to each other. There's going to be a whole lot of jawing."

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