Bob Stoops victorious in 2025 UFL season-opener
Bob Stoops victorious in 2025 UFL season-opener
Good luck to our former Sooners as @TheUFL season kicks off today! ☝️ pic.twitter.com/TImoBVzLBm — Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) March 28, 2025
Former Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops, the all-time winningest coach in program history, is back in the saddle coaching the UFL's Arlington Renegades. As the second season of the league began this weekend, Stoops was back in the win column, leading Arlington to a win over the San Antonio Brahmas by a score of 33-9 at home.
This is Stoops' fourth season coaching spring football, all with the Renegades, following his retirement from coaching the Sooners in the summer of 2017. In the 2020 version of the XFL that did not finish the season, he coached the Dallas Renegades. The team's starting quarterback for that partial season was Landry Jones, who is the all-time leading passer in OU history and started 50 games for Stoops from 2009 to 2012.
The XFL was reborn in 2023 and Stoops led the Arlington Renegades to the league's championship that spring. The XFL merged with the USFL, the other major spring football league, to form the United Football League. After the inaugural season last year, the league is back for Year 2 in 2025, with Stoops still on the sidelines.
But Stoops isn't the only former Sooner that is a part of the Renegades. His offensive coordinator, Chuck Long, was Stoops' play-caller from 2002 to 2005 at Oklahoma. He helped OU get to two national championship games and mentored Heisman Trophy winner Jason White. Three former Sooners are also on the roster for the Renegades in offensive lineman Adrian Ealy and defensive linemen Amani Bledsoe and LaRon Stokes.
There are a few other familiar names to Sooner Nation that play or coach for the other UFL teams. Defensive back Tre Norwood and defensive lineman Perrion Winfrey both play for the defending champion Birmingham Stallions. Defensive lineman Dillon Faamatau plays for the Memphis Showboats, and defensive lineman Isaiah Coe plays for the St. Louis Battlehawks. On the coaching side, former OU wide receiver Lee Morris is a quality control coach for the Showboats, while Chris Wilson, who played and coached at Oklahoma, is the defensive coordinator/linebackers coach for the Houston Roughnecks.
The UFL has ten weeks of the regular season, after which the top two teams from each conference will face off in the league semifinals before the UFL championship. That game will be played in June.
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