USA Today | December 5, 2019
George Schroeder
The day Bob Stoops fully realized he was living something akin to a stress-free existence came two years ago. Monday. Late August. Game week.
As Oklahoma’s coaching staff prepared for the season opener, the Sooners’ former coach was on the golf course.
“Instead of putting in (hours), being there until 10 at night,” he laughed, “I played golf and then went home.”
Ponder that as you consider Chris Petersen’s unexpected exit, at 55, after six seasons at Washington. Petersen said in a statement he wanted to “recharge.” And during a news conference Tuesday, he paraphrased Confucius (“an Eastern philosopher,” Petersen said) in explaining the decision.
“A man has two lives to live, and the second one begins when he realizes he only has one,” he said. Then he added: “That thing has been ringing in my ear.”
A couple of years earlier, Stoops heard that sound. While Stoops’ reasoning for an equally unexpected decision in June 2017 was slightly different, there were clear parallels. Stoops was 56. He told people, then and now, he wanted time and space to himself, away from the 24/7, 365 grind of college football. Last year, we heard Urban Meyer read from the same text. If the context was different for each coach, each decision was remarkably similar.
“Everybody’s circumstances are different,” Stoops said. “Chris ultimately is the one who knows what’s right for him, for he and his family. Just because it goes against what’s conventional doesn’t mean it’s not the right situation for him.”
It also doesn’t mean Petersen won’t eventually return to football, though he declined to respond to that obvious question Tuesday, saying, “I’m not falling into that trick question.”
But he added: “My whole plan is to get rested, get recharged and then get redirected.”
What does that mean? What’s he going to do with all of his free time? It’s likely even Petersen doesn’t know.
Stoops has traveled with his wife, Carol. He watched his sons play their senior season of high school football (and he’s still watching Drake, an Oklahoma wide receiver). He has played more golf than he ever thought he could. And yeah, he has missed coaching, at least parts of it.
Now he’s returning to football, just not in the way anybody expected. He found an outlet for his football itch in the XFL, a start-up professional league, as coach and general manager of the Dallas Renegades.
When Stoops spoke with USA TODAY Sports, he was in Dallas, where players report and practice begins this week, with the season set to begin in February. “I’m anticipating it being just like riding a bike,” he said – and he was clearly excited to get started.
But there are key differences in Stoops’ return. Unlike college football, the XFL doesn’t require a year-round commitment. Its season is shorter. And there’s actually an offseason. “There aren’t any seasons to (college football) anymore,” he noted. “It’s all the time.”
In the XFL, Stoops has a shot to get a football fix without diving headlong back into the grind. Whether that will be enough – whether he’ll eventually return to college coaching – who knows? The same goes for Petersen.
“Sometimes people have a hard time believing us,” Stoops said. “Chris does strike me as a guy who’s gonna do what he feels is right for himself and his family. I admire him for stepping up and doing what he’s able to do.”
Petersen might not head to the golf course. But he suddenly has all sorts of options to sift through.
“I’m not ready to do nothing,” Petersen said. “I’ve just got to figure out where all this passion, energy and inspiration goes.”
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