Ruffin McNeil will take over defensive leadership

Oklahoma coaches get fired for losing to Texas and Lincoln Riley just made a point about defensive deficiencies by firing OU defensive coordinator Mike Stoops – the brother of former Coach Bob Stoops.

Last Saturday, Texas scored 48 points against Mike Stoops’ defense – the most points OU has ever surrendered to Texas.

Riley made the decision at a time when the Sooners have two weeks to adjust because of a bye this Saturday.

“I have great respect for Mike,” said Riley. “He’s a quality football coach, great man and a close friend. It became time for a change in our program and that happens sometimes in football, but we cannot lose sight of the accomplishments Mike had at Oklahoma. He was responsible for a lot of success and deserves the gratitude of everyone associated with Sooner football, not only for his role in the winning, but for coaching with integrity.”

Ruffin McNeill will take over as defensive coordinator. That’s a job he held at The University of Nevada at Las Vegas (1997-1998), Fresno State (1999) and Texas Tech (2008-2009). McNeill was head coach at East Carolina (2010-2015) when Riley was an assistant there.

Bob Diaco, who has been a defensive consultant, will now take over Stoops’ role coaching outside linebackers.

Diaco also was a defensive coordinator at Cincinnati, Notre Dame and Nebraska. Diaco formerly was the head coach at Connecticut from 2014 to 2016.

“Ruffin has an impressive résumé,” Riley said. “That’s why I wanted him on our staff in the first place. I have confidence in his knowledge and leadership. Bob has a lot of experience in very good programs and also has a list of accomplishments that will help him step in and make an immediate impact. We are fortunate to have these men in our program. They’ll be ready to get to work in new roles right away.”

Mike Stoops came to OU in 1999 when his brother was named head coach. In their second year, they beat Florida State to win the national title. In 2004, Mike Stoops left to be head coach at Arizona and he was fired there after the 2011 season. Mike Stoops came back to OU in 2012 as defensive coordinator, a move that precipitated the departure of co-defensive coordinator Brent Venables, who went to Clemson.

Except for a pair of turnovers and some costly penalties, OU’s offense was red hot in the 45-48 last-second loss to Texas in the Red River Shootout. OU overcame a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit but Texas kicked a game-winning field goal with 9 seconds left to score the upset.

OU quarterback Kyler Murray hit 19 of 26 passes for 304 yards and four scores. An early interception killed a Sooner drive and gave momentum to Texas.

Texas, who came in with a 4-1 record, got more than 500 yards of offense (501) for only the second time in series history.

“We didn’t tackle well,” Riley said after the game. “We missed too many big tackles in the open field. I didn’t think we covered great. We had a few too many guys just getting beat to the ball in a couple situations and the glaring thing was the third and longs that we gave up. We gave up a third and 19 and we gave up another third and extremely long and they carried the ball another 10 yards … we’ve got to be better on third downs. We kind of surged there at the end and played extremely well – more competitive and more like we expect to play there at the end, but we gave them too many and that’s something we’ve all got to do a better job with.”

OU dropped from No. 7 to No. 11 while West Virginia jumped up to No. 6 and Texas was voted No. 9 in the AP poll. West Virginia (5-0, 3-0 in the Big 12) and Texas (5-1, 3-0) are tied for the top spot in league standings while OU (5-1, 2-1) dropped to a third-place tie with Baylor (4-2, 2-1).

OU still has a shot at winning the Big 12 Conference championship because the top two teams play at the end of the regular season. Even if Texas wins the rest of their games, Oklahoma could win the league title and maybe make it back to College Football Playoff.

“We have been as good as anybody in the country the last three years of responding to the very few losses we’ve had,” Riley said. “We’ve got a track record right there that you could put up against team in the country and that’s absolutely what we expect to do again. It’s going to take a lot of effort, a lot of hard work. We’ve got to get better in a lot of areas, but we’ve got fight in that room. We’ve got a bunch of guys who are incredibly disappointed right now, but they will be ready to get back on the field here in a couple of weeks against TCU.”