Bob Stoops says he's not close to signing a contract with Florida

[G8RB8R]

Oklahoma's Bob Stoops is not close to signing a contract with the University of Florida. That's what he told the Tulsa (Okla.) World newspaper on Saturday afternoon.

Dave Sittler reported that Stoops told him via text message that the rumors that he was close to agreeing on deal to replace Urban Meyer are "not true, whatsoever."

Stoops negotiating a contract with Florida officials to and that Jacksonville University coach Kerwin Bell would join Stoops' staff as offensive coordinator was a rumor that started to run rampant on Saturday morning.

JU officials have heard the rumor, too. JU spokesman Joel Lamp said he has not heard anything to support it.

"As of right now, Kerwin Bell is our head coach," Lamp said.

"We look forward to building toward the 2011 season and defending our PFL [Pioneer Football League] title."

Bell would rather remain a head coach, but the possibility of being able to run his offense without any interference from the head coach would certainly be intriguing. Stoops is a defensive coach. He was the defensive coordinator at Florida and Kansas State before taking the OU job.

JU led all Football Championship Subdivision teams in total offense (486.3 yards per game) and scoring (42.2 points per game) and was sixth in passing (292.9 yards per game) and 21st in rushing (193.4 yards per game) this past season. The Dolphins went 10-1 but did not receive an at-large berth to the FCS playoffs.

Bob Stoops says he's not close to signing a contract with Florida | jacksonville.com

Does this mean that Stoops really will be the next UF Coach? He doesn't say that he won't be, just that they are NOT "close to signing a contract". Hmmmmm....

 

[DRU2012]

I just spent a couple of hours "making the rounds" on the web, finally getting out there in the electronic wackosphere to "take the temp and pulse" of the faithful for myself. No surprise that prediction and opinion is all OVER the place, some of it ridiculous as far as I can see, a lot of personal agenda and bias with a dash of wishful thinking thrown in. Amongst it all a few persistent, detailed scenarios have emerged: what makes each so persistent is unknown at this point--they can't all be right, but each has the ring of possible authenticity.
This Bob Stoops-with-Kerwin Bell-as-OC "package deal" has supplanted the earlier "It's Mullen's if he wants it" as the almost done-deal...
Whattayaknow: THIS JUST IN: "Will Muschamp to Replace Urban Meyer as Coach of the Florida Gators"!!!
He's hardly been mentioned in all of this. I'm surprised--and though he's right under my nose here in Austin, not sure how I feel. He better bring in a hot young offensive guy as OC...that Longhorn offense was atrocious, as bad or worse than ours this season: Greg Kelly is the Texas Addazio, only not AS stupid and inflexible, so as it stands at this moment, on offense NOTHING has been solved.
DAMN! What is Foley thinking? I liked that Stoops/Bell arrangement more than this. Did he HAVE to pull the trigger this fast? Did that 21-down-to-3 recruiting bail-out scene this past weekend push a panic button?
Guess it's time to "wait and see", but this smacks of another Zook-like move on first blush.