Perhaps fueled by Bob Stoops’ decision to bag out on a scheduled session with the media Friday, reports began emerging last night that the Oklahoma head coach might be headed to Florida to take over for Urban Meyer.
GatorCountry.com, in fact, is reporting that Stoops is currently negotiating with athletic director Jeremy Foley and the Gators administration on a contract that would send him to Gainesville, and that the discussions are going so well that the two sides are finalizing a deal.
Stoops, however, has emphatically denied the veracity of the reports.
In a text message to Tulsa World‘s Dave Sittler, the OU coach said the stories of contract negotiations with UF are “not true, whatsoever.” Stoops added that he’s “out recruiting as we text.”
Of course, Stoops’ denial means little as his agent could very well be doing the negotiating; that’s why Stoops hired him in the first place.
It appears, though, that the speculation connecting Stoops to Florida is premature at best right now. What will the future hold? There’s an awful lot of smoke here for there to be no semblance of a fire underneath.
We suspect this won’t be the last report mentioning Stoops between now and whenever athletic director makes his latest football hire.