Recent comments from former Oklahoma DC Mike Stoops are ironic considering the way Josh Heupel was fired by Sooners

If you're a Tennessee Vols fan, you likely know the story of how current UT head coach Josh Heupel was fired by the Oklahoma Sooners after the 2014 season. 

Heupel, a former Oklahoma quarterback who led the Sooners to a national championship in 2000, was fired by Bob Stoops (who was also Heupel's coach as a player) as OU's offensive coordinator after the program went 8-5 in 2014. 

Oklahoma's offense averaged 36.4 points per game in 2014, which was No. 21 in the nation. The Sooners' defense, however, allowed 25.9 points per game, which was No. 56 in the nation. 

Neither unit was "elite", but the defense was obviously more of an issue than the offense. 

So why wasn't Oklahoma's defensive coordinator fired instead of Heupel? 

Well, that's because the Sooners' defensive coordinator at the time was Mike Stoops, the brother of the head coach. 

Bob Stoops had to make some changes after going 8-5 in 2014. The noise would've been too loud if no changes were made. And while he probably didn't want to fire Heupel (Stoops later said in his book that firing Heupel was the hardest day of his career at OU), there was no way he was firing his brother. So Heupel, in a real life example of nepotism, got the axe instead of Mike Stoops (co-offensive coordinator Jay Norvell was also fired). 

It should've been Mike Stoops and not Heupel that was fired after the 2014 season (though things have worked out better for Heupel than they have for Mike Stoops in the ensuing years). 

Which makes some recent comments from Mike Stoops a bit ironic considering the way things went down with Heupel at Oklahoma. 

Mike Stoops joined The Barry Tramel Show earlier this offseason and he was asked about his time at Oklahoma. Stoops mentioned that at the start of Oklahoma's struggles, the defense had trouble adjusting to offenses like Baylor's (under then head coach Art Briles). 

"I go back and look when our struggles started to exist there at Oklahoma," said Stoops. "That was hard. Just because -- I felt like the conference, offensively, is the best it's ever been (during that time frame)...some of the greatest quarterbacks I'd seen. Receivers, skill guys and our inability to match up, whether it was on the perimeter or inside, whatever. There's enough blame to go around. Just couldn't match up week in and week out. But the skill level of a Baylor, you know, spreading you out, making you cover the field -- we just didn't adapt. And certainly that fell on my shoulders. And I certainly understand it."