COLLEGE FOOTBALL Stoops believes brother ready to be a head coach

Mark Stoops has built strong defenses at Kansas State and Oklahoma.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
NORMAN, Okla. -- Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said there is no doubt that his brother Mike is ready to become a Division I-A head coach.
"Mike is more than ready for it," Stoops said. "If I'm any kind of barometer, he's much further along than I was when I took this job. It's amazing; I seem to be fairly popular [to try and] hire, and there's nobody more like me than him."
Stoops won a national championship in his second season as a head coach and three years later is on the verge of a repeat. He said Mike Stoops, his associate head coach, has played a major role.
"It shouldn't be, but it's hard for me to talk about Mike because he's a brother," said Stoops whose family hails from Youngstown. "But the bottom line is, to say Mike has been very instrumental in our success here at Oklahoma isn't enough."
Blood relationship aside, Stoops' endorsement alone should be the only reference needed for an perspective employer interested in hiring OU's defensive coordinator. Mike Stoops will have a second interview with Arizona officials, likely on Sunday.
But bloodlines should be sufficient recommendation, said Sooners defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek.
Dedicated
Mike Stoops "is an unbelievable coach and he's everything you want in a head coach," Dvoracek said. "He's fun to be around, he knows so much about football, he's so dedicated to what he does, and he's a great family man.
"Wherever he goes -- whenever he goes -- he's going to do a great job. He's going to be as good a head coach as his brother. He's a Stoops."
Mike Stoops won't comment on the Arizona situation, other than to say the job is attractive.
"If it happens, it happens," Mike Stoops said. "If not, I'm happy with what I'm doing. I'm at peace with myself and what we do here on a daily basis. I'm not worried about what the future holds."
Strong resume
Certainly Mike Stoops' resume as a coordinator is impressive. A part of the rebuilding process at Kansas State, he was the Wildcats' co-defensive coordinator in 1996-98. In his last season, K-State was one of four schools nationally to rank among the top 10 in every major defensive category.
His reputation as the mastermind of one of college football's most admired defensive packages at OU is unmatched. Oklahoma's unparalleled success against Saturday's opponent, Texas Tech, is a good example. In offensive guru Mike Leach's past three seasons, Tech's high-powered offense has averaged 416 yards per game. In three losses to the Sooners, Tech's average is only 271.
"If you know of anybody who can consistently beat OU, I'd like to get together and borrow some ideas," Leach said this week.
Is it Stoops' scheme? The fact that Leach ran the offense at OU during Stoops' first season? Maybe. Maybe there's more.
"You can't question what coach Mike knows about defense," OU defensive end Dan Cody said. "But he understands how coaches think, too. He can look at a coach from a personal standpoint, and it's like he can almost read their minds. It's crazy."
Player confidence
He instills the utmost confidence in his players.
"You couldn't have a better general out there," cornerback Derrick Strait said. "He always has great game plans for us. If we don't have a good game, it's just us not executing."
"Mike is incredibly bright and smart in not only how he calls the game but how he prepares his guys for it," Bob Stoops said. "He is continually looking for new and innovative ways to change and be ahead of what offenses are doing, or what other people are doing on defense.
"He is much more advanced than where I was when I was a defensive coordinator. Not that I couldn't have been there, too, if I had remained a coordinator. But people have mistakenly given me too much credit for our defense here. It isn't my defense."
Aggressive nature
Scheming aside, there is the aggressive Stoops personality trait.
"This is a really aggressive defense, and it's because of him," Cody said. "We've got aggressive players, don't get me wrong. But that's the type defense he wants you to play and you don't want to get him upset. But at the same time, you want someone that's crazy like that. Who is going to pull out all the stops and do whatever he's got to do to get the job done and play good, fundamental defense. Not something that's just off-the-wall backyard football."
The perception -- at least in the past -- has been that Mike's aggressive coaching demeanor has been regarded a drawback by perspective employers.
"That may have been a perception," Bob Stoops said, "but it's the wrong one. Mike coaches exactly how I did as a defensive back coach and coordinator. I had the same competitiveness, the same fire, the same passion. And I demanded that my players play the same way. That should be a good thing."
Mike Stoops concedes he's better prepared to be a head coach than he was five years ago.
"I have really enjoyed the maturity process that has to take place," he said. "It's been fun and this has been a great place to do that under Bob and this administration. The next step is something that I'm prepared to do."