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Oklahoma has been separated from long-time defensive coordinator Mike Stoops on Monday, announcing the dismissal of his assistant coach. The first news of Stoops' departure was announced Sunday night with many outlets reporting that Stoops had been fired or resigned from his post. Oklahoma confirmed the first Monday morning.
"I have a lot of respect for Mike," Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said in a statement. "It's a quality football coach and a close friend, it's time to change our schedule and it happens sometimes in football, but we can not lose sight of Mike's achievements in Oklahoma. a lot of success and deserves the gratitude of all those associated with Sooner's football, not only for his role in winning, but also for his honest coaches. "
Ruffin McNeill will assume the role of defensive coordinator for the remainder of the season, while Bob Diaco will transition from defensive analyst to the linebacker coach.
The decision to separate from Stoops follows the 48-45 loss to Oklahoma in Texas on Saturday in the Red River Showdown, the latest in a long series of mediocre defensive performances by Sooners. These performances were masked by the explosive and highly successful attack of Oklahoma led by Kyler Murray this season and Baker Mayfield last year.
Following Oklahoma's defeat against the Longhorns, his defense ranked 52nd in the number of yards allowed per game (5.29), but that's the inability of the defense to leave the field that was the killer. The Sooners are ranked 98th in the country in third place defense, allowing opponents to convert 42.4% of their tries in the third. In the red zone, the situation was even worse, as opponents of Oklahoma scored points on 100% of their possessions in the red zone. This includes a hit rate of 85.7%, ranking 124th in the country, tied with Rice and UAB.
But it's not just statistics, it's also the overall performance against the right teams. Last season, Sooners' defense allowed 27.1 points per game, which was not good but it was not good either. However, against winning teams, this number has reached 31.9. The story was not different in 2018, the Sooners have allocated 27.3 points per game in total and 34 against winning teams.
Stoops was the Oklahoma's defensive coordinator since the 2012 season. He is the brother of former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, who retired before the 2017 campaign. Riley has retained the Mike Stoops and led the Sooners to a playoff spot at college football last season. McNeill, Riley's long-time mentor, was his former boss at East Carolina.
Oklahoma is on leave this week but will play at TCU on October 20th.
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