“I went off, and we talked for awhile. I said, ‘You know, I understand. This is probably a pretty frightening decision to have to make. You realize you'll have only one chance. It could be very important. He said it was. We just talked for awhile. I remember one of the points I emphasized to him, ‘We won't be fickle. The administration is not going to be fickle. And our fan base, if you come here and you have any element of success, they're going to give you a chance to build a great program here and have the time to do it. We're not going to be fair-weather fans. We're going to be committed to you and heavily invested in you and you won't need to look over your shoulder whether you'll be supported. You'll be supported 100 percent.'”

Stoops apparently was convinced, despite the three coaching changes in 48 months. Boren said he received clearance from Stoops to tell the group that Stoops had accepted.

But Boren said Stoops felt compelled to keep his appointment with Iowa, where Hayden Fry was retiring, not so much to investigate the job but to inform officials from his alma mater face to face.

“We said of course,” Boren said. “To me, that was a good sign, that he was a person of integrity and loyalty, that he felt he should go back to his old school with his old coach and tell them himself.”