Stoops has a history of being short and almost insulting to/with local media. He simply doesn't respect them and even when it comes to more regional or national coverage, he picks and chooses who he favors in an interview process.
In his mind, stadium noise, regardless of where the team is playing, is irrelevant. His comments about Neyland are not necessarily reflective of his opinion about what OU faces this coming Saturday but more about the ridiculous line of questioning he gets when he has to face the media.
This is classic Stoops. If you could see some of his halftime on-the-field interviews as he heads to the locker room you would get a better feel for what I am talking about. He thinks the interviewer is wasting his time and the questions are incredibly stupid. His demeanor with the press is a running joke in Oklahoma.
I watched Butch Jones' Monday press conference and the two are night and day from each other. Jones gives detailed answers to the questions, almost too much information; but much more accommodating and respectful. It is well known to OU fans that Stoops has sort of a running feud with certain local reporters who cover the OU football beat, most notably, John Hoover from the Tulsa World.
Bob is highly thought of and respected by the Sooner fandom, notwithstanding his prickly demeanor. He is the winningest coach in OU history and that's saying something. The program is the only one in college football with 4 coaches with over 100 wins each in their careers as HC in Norman. He's won 9 conference championships and one NC and has competed in 4 NC games. He's won all the BCS bowls and has a winning record vs Texas, Nebraska, Florida State, Alabama, & Oregon to name a few. He runs a very clean program and he is a players coach. His assistants love him for the family atmosphere he creates. With all this the fans pretty much cut him slack when it comes to his testiness.
Personally, I think he's the best HC OU has ever had because the times in which he has coached are so much more complicated then when Wilkinson or Switzer were in charge.......from recruiting to scholly limits to the demands today's players put on a program, Bob has done an outstanding job.
Some worry that he has finally run the string out. History pretty much validates that he is at a point in his career when both Wilkinson and Switzer started to lose it. But, he is much younger than they were at this juncture and his recent hip replacement surgery seems to have put him in a much better frame of mind. I expect him to leave OU on his own terms. He has been too good a HC and the way he turned the program around after the miserable 90's was nothing short of miraculous.