Add Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops to the list of college coaches that could be candidates for the NFL coaching jobs that are now open in Detroit, Tampa, Houston, Washington, Minnesota and Cleveland, according to NFL Media insider Ian Rapoport.
"Another name to watch, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops. He also has expressed some interest in joining the NFL," Rapoport told Rich Eisen on NFL Network during Monday's coverage of the league's head-coach firings.
Rapoport also reiterated that Penn State coach Bill O'Brien is a strong candidate for the Houston Texans' coaching position, and that multiple NFL clubs have an interest in Vanderbilt coach James Franklin.
Stoops will coach the 10-2 Sooners in the Sugar Bowl against Alabama Thursday.
He is from Youngstown, Ohio, a little more than an hour from Cleveland, which fired Rob Chudzinski after only one season on Sunday night. Stoops never has coached in the NFL, spending his entire career in the college ranks, beginning at Kent State in 1988. He gained a reputation as one of the top defensive coordinators in the college game in the 1990s at Kansas State, and later at Florida, before taking on the head coaching job at OU in 1999.
He has led the Sooners to a bowl appearance in each of his 15 seasons at the school.
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