Bob Stoops tops list of best OU coaching hires in Joe Castiglione's 25 years as Sooners AD
In 25 years as OU’s athletic director, Joe Castiglione has made dozens of hires. Here are the 10 best, in terms of head coaches.
1. Bob Stoops
Football, 1999-2016: Stoops’ instant success — national championship in Year 2 — changed the financial trajectory of Sooner athletics. And made for gridiron glory that has remained strong.
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2. K.J. Kindler
Women’s gymnastics, 2007-present: Kindler’s Sooners have won six of the last nine NCAA championships, including the last two, and have become the top women’s gymnastics program in the nation.
3. Ryan Hybl
Men’s golf, 2010-present: Under Hybl, the Sooners won the 2017 NCAA title and have become regulars in NCAA match play, which includes the final eight teams. OU golf had a good tradition before Hybl, but now the Sooners have joined the club of the most elite programs in America.
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4. Mark Williams
Men’s gymnastics, 2000-present: A 12-year OU assistant coach when promoted to head coach, Williams took over a great program and made it even better. Nine NCAA team championships, the most of any Sooner sport or Sooner coach.
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5. Lincoln Riley
Football, 2017-21: The 33-year-old Riley was promoted in June 2017, when Stoops decided to retire suddenly, and kept the Sooners near the top of the sport, with three more College Football Playoff appearances, four more Big 12 titles and two more Heisman Trophy quarterbacks.
6. Lon Kruger
Men’s basketball, 2011-21: Cemented OU hoops as a program with stature by taking the Sooners to the Final Four in 2016, the school’s fifth trip to college basketball’s Valhalla.
7. Audra Cohen
Women’s tennis, 2017-present: Women’s tennis was mostly an afterthought nationally, but Cohen invigorated the program and took the Sooners to the 2022 NCAA championship match.
8. Skip Johnson
Baseball, 2018-present: OU baseball had been sleepy for most of a decade. Then the 2022 Sooners stormed all the way to the championship series of the men’s College World Series.
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9. Jennie Baranczyk
Women’s basketball, 2021-present: Sherri Coale was a legend when she retired in 2021. But the program had stagnated. It has roared to life in two seasons under Baranczyk.
10. John Roddick
Men’s tennis, 2010-16: Similar to the women’s tennis story, the Sooners were a good program. But Roddick prodded OU onto the national landscape, taking the Sooners to the 2014 NCAA championship match.
—Berry Tramel, Columnist
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Bob Stoops tops list of best OU coaching hires under Joe Castiglione
