Former Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops will return to Norman to lead the Sooners program on an interim basis following Lincoln Riley’s hiring as the new head coach at USC.

Stoops won 190 games in 18 seasons at the helm of the Sooners, including a national championship in 2000. After his retirement in 2016, he returned to the sideline in 2020 to coach the XFL’s Dallas Renegades before the season’s shutdown due to COVID-19. In September, he replaced Urban Meyer on FOX’s “Big Noon Kickoff” after Meyer became the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“First and foremost, I’m a program guy and whatever I can do to help OU and to support the players, of course I’m glad to do it,” Stoops said in a statement on Sunday. “I’ll do everything I can to help them finish the season in a strong and successful way and I look forward to that.”