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| Sunday, January 21 Stoops repeats desire to stay Associated Press | |||
| TULSA, Okla. -- Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops,
repeating his remarks of last weekend, insists he isn't planning to
leave for the Cleveland Browns.
A report this week in The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer indicated the
Browns might try to quietly court Stoops.
"The problem with college coaches is you can't say you're
interviewing them because then you create problems," owner Al
Lerner told the newspaper. "They have problems with recruiting."
Stoops had problems with the story.
"Listen, I can't stop anybody from saying things, but he can
read my statement from last week and read it again," Stoops told
the Tulsa World in Friday's editions. "I'm not going anywhere."
Stoops, a native of Youngstown, Ohio, led Oklahoma to the
national championship this season in just his second year on the
job.
Last Saturday, during a basketball halftime ceremony honoring
the team, Stoops told the crowd:
"Regardless of what you hear, I plan on being at Oklahoma for a
long time."
Later, at a news conference, he said he felt fortunate to be
Oklahoma's coach.
"Hopefully, they'll have me here for quite a while. I plan on
that," he said. "Life's never certain of anything, but right now
I believe I have the best football job in the country, and that
means college or pros."
Speculation about Stoops heightened after he said Browns
president Carmen Policy had been trying to reach him on his cell
phone, and that he would talk to team representatives if they
called.
This week, he said he doesn't expect rumors about that job to
end until the position is filled.
"It's a compliment to the program that people recognize what a
solid program we have and that people like that are interested,"
he told the World. "What's exciting is this program is only going
to get better."
Stoops is scheduled to be among those on hand Sunday at Memorial
Stadium in Norman for a celebration of the national championship.
The event begins at 4 p.m., with gates opening at 2:30.
The event, scheduled to last about an hour, will be treated in
some ways like a game day, with concession stands open and vendors
selling memorabilia.
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Stoops only interested in talking about staying | ||
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