Robert Anthony Stoops (born September 9, 1960) is an American football coach. He was the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1999 through the 2016 season, and on an interim basis during the 2021 Alamo Bowl. He led the Oklahoma Sooners to a record of 191–48 over his career. His 2000 Oklahoma Sooners football team won the 2001 Orange Bowl, which served as the BCS National Championship Game, and earned a consensus national championship. Since 2020, Stoops has been a head coach with the XFL, coaching the Arlington Renegades in 2020 and has been re-signed for 2023. Stoops played college football at the University of Iowa as a defensive back from 1979 to 1982. Prior to his tenure at Oklahoma, he held various assistant coaching positions at the University of Iowa, Kent State University, Kansas State University, and the University of Florida. Stoops was awarded the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award in 2000 and the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award in both 2000 and 2003. Stoops has been nicknamed "Big Game Bob" by both supporters and detractors. Stoops was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2021. High school and college Stoops is one of six children born to Ron Sr. and Evelyn "Dee Dee" Stoops in Youngstown, Ohio. He is a 1978 graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School, where his father was the long-time defensive coordinator of the football team. Bob and his three brothers (Ron Jr., Mike, and Mark) were all coached by Ron Sr. at Mooney. During a game in 1988 against the team coached by Ron Jr., Ron Sr. began experiencing chest pains. He was placed in an ambulance following the game and died en route to the hospital. While at Iowa, Stoops was a four-year starter, and one-time All-Big Ten selection at defensive back at the University of Iowa. He was named Team MVP in 1982. Coaching career Assistant coach After graduating with a marketing degree in 1983, Stoops began his coaching career as a volunteer coach and graduate assistant in the Iowa Hawkeyes program under Hayden Fry. He next was an assistant at Kent State University under Dick Crum in 1988, and then joined the coaching staff at Kansas State University the following year. Stoops was named co-defensive coordinator at Kansas State under Bill Snyder in 1991 and assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator in