When college football kicks off next fall, Bob Stoops will again be a part of the action. According to Andrew Marchand, Stoops will join Fox Sports’ Big Noon Kickoff, filling the void left when Urban Meyer took the head coaching job with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
This is a great get for Fox as they’re swapping one legendary college football coach for another, but this does leave XFL fans wondering: will Stoops return to the league in 2022, or are his sights now set on broadcasting?
Since the college season runs through January, his commitment to Fox could keep him from getting the Renegades back off the ground from springtime. While we still don’t know the timeline for league operations, in 2019 the Draft was in October, minicamp was in December and training camp took all of January.
It’s too early to rule anything out, and this news doesn’t entirely preclude his return to the XFL but both tracks require a lot of time, work and preparation. Renegades fans may have to brace themselves for the possibility of a new coach taking the reins in 2022.
While Stoops himself initially expressed interest in remaining with the XFL following last spring’s shutdown, and there were rumors he and Steve Spurrier were looking at spring football again, he’s explored other avenues as well. He served as a special advisor to Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma in December, and now it appears his sights have been set back on the college game.
While the Dallas Renegades faithful are still probably dreaming of a full season with Bob Stoops and Landry Jones raising hell around the league, it seems that the door may have just opened up for new possibilities in Dallas.
