5 realistic replacements for Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma

2. Josh Heupel

With one of the most exciting offenses in all of college football, Josh Heupel has helped the Tennessee Volunteers become a dangerous team to face. The Vols are 7-5 and are moving in the right direction.

But will Oklahoma swoop in and ruin everything that is happening in Knoxville? Maybe. Heupel is a successful head coach with ties to the Sooners.

Those ties to Oklahoma?

Well, he played under legendary Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops, won a national title for the Sooners, and was the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy roughly 21 years ago. He also served as an assistant coach for Stoops for a number of years, helping the Sooners continue to win from 2006 through 2014.

That’s fairly substantial.

Heupel is relatively new to this whole head coaching thing, but the Sooners may be willing to take a shot at him given his quick success with getting the Vols on their feet and with what he was able to do with the UCF Knights.

1. Mark Stoops

Some Oklahoma fans will want his brother, but Mark Stoops might just be the best candidate that the Sooners could land if he’s interested in leaving the Kentucky Wildcats.

With the Wildcats, Stoops has been able to take what was once one of the worst programs in the SEC and turn it into a consistent winner. Kentucky has been steady and successful and now he’s looking at possibly winning 10 games in a season for the second time in four years.

That’s pretty good.

Stoops may have hit his ceiling with Kentucky. It’s very likely that nine or 10 wins a year is as good as it could possibly get for Stoops with the Wildcats, and there’s no real shame in that. It can be difficult to win in Lexington.

It’s considerably easier to win in Norman.

Would Stoops be willing to go to the place where his brother found all sorts of success and help the Sooners in their quest to win a national championship? He’d have more resources at his disposal at Oklahoma and could conceivably be in the College Football Playoff discussion in any given year.

But, like Campbell, he should keep Mullen in mind. Just because the grass looks greener elsewhere doesn’t mean it’s where you should go.

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