Nearly six months after his surprise retirement, Bob Stoops strolled through the players’ lounge of Oklahoma’s practice facilities.

It was a usual occurrence for the once-legendary OU head coach, but on this occasion he was looking for one player: Nick Basquine, a former Sooners wide receiver and Norman native, who is now OU’s assistant director of operations.

Stoops, finally, caught the receiver in passing before broaching him with a serious question regarding his son Drake Stoops, then a high school senior receiver at Norman North. OU’s former head coach wanted Basquine to help guide Drake in the right direction, as he fielded offers from Iowa, Bob’s alma mater, Ohio, Western Kentucky, Air Force, or a walk-on spot with the Sooners.

“Hey, Drake’s going to text you,” Bob told Basquine that day. “I truly want him to do whatever he wants to do, but he’s gonna hit you up and ask you some questions. Just give him the advice you had when you were coming out.”

Similarly to Stoops, Basquine was once a wide receiver coming out of Norman North before walking-on with the Sooners in 2014. He understood the type of mentality and work it took to make it at OU.

Drake pinged Basquine on his phone during that same day. The 5-foot-10, 189-pound wide receiver was leaning toward either playing for the Hawkeyes, away from the shroud of his father’s shadow, or staying put in Norman, in the limelight and among the pressure of making a name for himself outside of Bob’s legend.

“That was the biggest thing,” Basquine said. “He wanted to make sure that if he did go to OU that he earned his way and he didn’t get it because he was coach Stoops’ son and that he was good enough.

“I wasn’t trying to push him a certain way, but I knew he could play at this level for this team and help us out at some point.”

Drake eventually committed to the Sooners on Jan. 12, 2018, as a preferred walk-on. While it seemed inevitable at the time, a coach’s kid playing for his father’s team; he was skeptical about joining the Sooners. What has become a storied and legendary six-year career for Drake in Norman nearly ceased to exist, as he almost played for the Hawkeyes.

Instead, he chose to take on the challenge of emerging from Bob’s shadow. He found his identity. And, most of all, he did it at the highest level and took all the pressure to his chin. As No. 13 Oklahoma (9-2, 6-2 Big 12) gets set to take on TCU (5-6, 3-5) at 11 a.m. on Black Friday in Norman on Fox, the redshirt senior’s long, storybook regular season career in Norman will come to a close during OU’s senior night.

His daunting competitiveness and love for the game has been showcased throughout his entire career. In six seasons, Drake has pulled in 146 catches for 1,669 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns in 60 total games played. In 2023 alone, he’s caught 66 passes for 755 yards and nine touchdowns, all of which are career-highs.

Sooner Nations’s “STOOPS” chant will forever be just as recognizable as Bob’s trademark cream visor he wore on the sidelines. Drake has become the pinnacle example for what the prototypical OU football player should look and act like.

Reliable. Unflappable. Persevering.

“He’s been able to fulfill and live his dreams,” Bob told the OU Daily. “To have the experience on the field and, you know, and the bond with the team he has, I know what that’s like because I lived it in Iowa. … I’m just glad he has that. And he’s been able to compete at a high level and he’ll have a chance to even go on from here and possibly go pro.”

‘Everybody watched that kid’

The moment Drake was born an expectation was set.

Kellen Samspon felt and saw the pressure manifest itself when he coached Drake, Isaac Stoops, Jake and Tyler Venables during little league basketball games. He similarly had to break through the shadow of his own father, as Kelvin Sampson became one of the most revered basketball coaches in the nation at OU and now Houston.

Sampson understood watching him grow up wasn’t going to be easy.

“Drake is John F. Kennedy Jr.,” Sampson said. “Everybody watched that kid from the time he was an infant until he became an adult. To Sooner nation he is John F. Kennedy Jr., right? And for him to live this life of no trouble and to live this life and get to the pinnacle of his athletic career in the midst of this incredible attention (is amazing).

“He’s been the prodigal Sooner son for 24 years, and he’s lived up to it. That’s frickin incredible. Tiger Woods, LeBron James and Drake Stoops are the only three people I can think of that can live up to their expectations.”

While Sampson played at OU as a walk-on and coached the Stoops and Venables’ “biker gang,” Drake always stood in the huddle attentively and  asked “who’s the best player,” because he always took on the challenge of guarding him. Sampson knew he was naturally and unconsciously taking on the “battle” being the coach’s kid early on.

“It’s just the truth: until you’re good enough to be known by your name, you’re known by somebody else’s name,” Sampson said. “That sucks. That’s hard. …They have this expectation of you that’s unfair and unreasonable because you’re the son of somebody super successful and that’s not always fair. And, certainly when you’re young you don’t always understand it.

“You have to be tough. You have to be resilient. You have to lead your own process in your own journey.”

Tyler and Jake Venables grew up with the same pressure, committing and playing at Clemson under Brent, who was the Tigers defensive coordinator from 2012-2021.

“I think as a coach’s kid I never really understood how people look at it until I guess I got to kind of high school,” Tyler told the OU Daily. “I never really put any pressure on myself because of the way you know my dad handled it and he was never too big a time for anything. I had a model of humility and how humble he was through all the success and the failure that he’s had. That really rubbed off on me and gave me the right perspective.”

Jake has carved the beginnings of his own legacy, becoming the strength and conditioning coach at UAB. Before committing to Clemson in 2016, the former outside linebacker wanted to avoid playing under his dad.

“I really wanted to kind of detach myself from being the coach’s kid and going to Clemson,” Jake said. “That was probably my first two and a half, three years of high school. I wasn’t even thinking about going to Clemson. I would go to all these other camps and all these other places and start collecting some scholarship offers.”

Like Brent did with Jake and Tyler, Bob was always hands off with Drake and Isaac’s careers on the football field. Brent Barnes, Norman North’s former head coach, often watched Bob and Carol Stoops, Drake’s mother, watch idly in the stands. Before announcing his surprise retirement on June 7, 2017, Bob would often run to and from games on Friday nights, as OU’s coaching duties called his name the very next day.

When Bob stepped down at Oklahoma, he was able to watch both of his sons without the pressure of coaching.

“He just wanted to be a Dad with his boys,” Barnes told the OU Daily. “He never wanted to step on toes. There was a part of me that was almost like, ‘Coach, step in here and tell us we can do better.’”

Even if Bob did his best to create normalcy for both Isaac and Drake, the outside pressure was still very real. Brandon Marquardt, the Timberwolves’ former quarterback, watched Drake and Isaac navigate it with the same consistency and poise that they had on the field, however.

“I just think that they just tried to ignore it,” Marquardt said. “I think they kind of laughed at it because people would just say, ‘Oh, he’s doing this and that because he’s Drake stoops or he’s got this car because he’s this or that.’ There (was always) just a lot of chatter.”

In Drake’s case, that motivation shaped him for the rest of his life.

“What I found out was that, if you live for man’s approval, you’ll die by his rejection,” Tyler said. “You can never win that battle, ever. I kind of made peace with it, but also understood that everybody was kind of looking at me and thinking that already … (Now) I live my life on the edge and I live on the field with an edge.”

‘Heart of a lion’

In the midst of 2022, a season in which the Sooners finished 6-7, nothing could get in the way of Drake Stoops in practice.

Not even former OU interim and now-USF wide receivers coach L’Damian Washington could stop the 5-foot-10 fireball from doing what he wanted. In particular, he always wanted to do the grueling one-on-one drills that had one attacker (with the ball) and one defender (the tackler) colliding into one another.

Washington, at multiple points last season, had to tell the redshirt senior, “No Drake, chill, we have to get you to Saturday.” The physical punishment for him was pleasure; it was harnessed by his unrelenting competitiveness and work ethic.

What drove Washington the craziest, however, is when he’d pull Drake out of the drills only to see him snake his way back in line.

“That’s how he is,” Washington told the OU Daily. “It made me a better coach because I knew I couldn’t walk into that room and, one, not be confident but two I had to know my stuff because you can’t go in there and fool him. He’s on top of it and he’s the smartest one in there.”

Drake’s competitive edge is what sets him apart from anyone at OU. He’s fierce and tough, and he won’t let anyone get in his way.

“He doesn’t want anybody to think that what he got is because his last name is Stoops,” Washington said. “For him it’s about creating his own legacy, which you can respect because a lot of kids in this situation would expect something. He expects nothing. He goes out there and works his butt off.”

Drake’s competitiveness and fire could be seen in small glimpses of his childhood.

One time during the Christmas Bowl, a famed game where every OU child wore their new NFL jerseys and played tackle football at the Everest Indoor Training Center, Drake sprinted down the sideline before being throttled by Tyler.

It was a usual occurrence between the two, but this time Drake’s new jersey he was gifted for Christmas was ripped in half. Immediately he chirped insults at the future Clemson linebacker before entering a shoving match.

The moment was indicative that it just meant more for Drake. Tyler sees the same fire when he’s watched OU’s games back this season.

“It really does look like that he’s playing pissed off and that he’s, he’s truly motivated to be his absolute best,” Tyler said. “I’m sure that he heard all the kinds of stuff that I heard, probably magnified even more because of Bob Stoops. No one can cast a much bigger shadow than Bob Stoops.”

In high school the same fire could be seen both on the field and in his training regimen. In between playing games with Trae Young for the Timberwolves’ varsity basketball team, typically the football offseason, Barnes would catch Drake running ladders and lifting weights alone at Norman North’s facilities.

On the weekends, he’d call up Marquardt to throw routes, and if he wasn’t available then he’d do workouts by himself. He spent nearly six hours each day with the same routine over and over again.

“I’ve never been around anybody more competitive than Drake Stoops,” Barnes said. “Now. I can say I can say there’s others that were maybe as competitive but I can say with certainty, there’s not any person I’ve ever been around that’s more competitive than Drake and that works harder.”

When Stoops joined OU in 2018, the path didn’t get any easier in his first two seasons, either. During his entire career he was surrounded by five-star recruits like Theo Wease, Jadon Haselwood and other talented receivers like Marvin Mims Jr. and CeeDee Lamb, who both went to the NFL.

Still, he fought for his spot and made a competitive mark. That became even more evident to former OU wide receivers coach Cale Gundy, who saw Drake fight tooth and nail in practice. Alongside that, Drake followed a formula from Gundy to harness his spirit and heighten it with the intangibles he could work toward, which was route running and mastering the mental game.

With the help of Bob, Drake was even able to study and watch NFL and college players with his measurables workout to mimic his success.

“We always talked from day one about what he had to do in order to be better than what his measurables were,” Gundy told the OU Daily. “Drake did that and he learned tremendously obviously. Everybody kind of wants to compare him to… Wes Welker right, and I think that they’re very, very similar in ways of size and speed measurables, but they were both great route runners. That’s what you have to do in order to overcome certain things.”

As time gave way, Drake slowly rose through the ranks of Oklahoma’s wide receiver corps to get to where he is today. Not one day has been different despite Lincoln Riley’s dramatic departure, Brent Venables homecoming and the shadow of the Stoops legacy. He has, and always, remained fiery and consistent.

“You could bring in all these five-star kids and whatever,” Washington said, “but at the end of the day, Drake’s hard to beat because that kid is consistent and that kid has heart. You can’t measure that at the combine. He has the heart of a lion. To me, it doesn’t matter what 5-star you bring in. Drake is going to be way too consistent to keep him off the field.”

‘Drake’s truly been that example’

Mere months after OU’s 2022 season, its worst since the 1990s, Drake tossed and turned on the idea of coming back for one last season.

He spent almost every day in Washington’s office, pondering on the future, the disappointment of last season and — most of all — the legacy he’d left in five seasons. He constantly asked Washington, “If I leave do (you think) I get a shot at a camp,” or said “I don’t want to go out this way.”

In other moments, Drake would be watching film with a group of teammates from the wide receiver’s room, trying to plan for any scenario for how to improve in 2023. He also mapped out the things he wanted to do, personally, to go out with a bang in his final season.

It became clear that the “program guy” had a little more left in the tank.

“For him, it was about coming back, having something to prove and going out on a high note,” Washington said. “ … He was like, ‘Man, this offseason I gotta change this. I gotta change this,’ like, dude, what? He already had a plan ready. We’re talking about December of last year like he was coming into my office putting together a plan for when he returned.”

The choice to return was seemingly the right one for Stoops. As Washington departed for USF and Oklahoma hired receivers coach Emmett Jones, Stoops has led one of the most productive seasons to date.

On the field, he’s been a leader among emerging playmakers like Nic Anderson and Jayden Gibson. And, despite missing out on a potential College Football Playoff berth, Stoops has helped lead OU to being on the brink of another 10-win season, a big step up from a season ago.

He’s had his fair share of memorable moments both on and off the field, as well. During OU’s win over West Virginia, the redshirt senior pulled in a career-high three touchdowns, while also notching his second plus-100 yard receiving game of the year.

In that game, Drake, and his 5-foot-10 frame, dragged multiple Mountaineers’ defenders to the endzone. Most notably, on his final touchdown of that game, he was clobbered and tauntingly stood over by West Virginia safety Anthony Wilson. Immediately, a throng of OU teammates led by none other than Dillon Gabriel rushed into a brawl that drew similarities to an old western bar fight.

It seems like Drake, through his teammates’ actions, has completed what he wanted his legacy to be at OU.

“You don’t really know your impact and your legacy until you know you’re gone and you look back and people tell you or whatever,” Drake told the OU Daily on Monday. “I would want to be remembered as a good teammate, a good leader. Someone that was always doing the right thing, always doing his part to help the team win and being a mentally tough guy to do whatever it takes to see his team win.”

Surely, he’s done that. But there’s so much more to his legacy. Two weeks ago, after OU dropped back to back games to OSU and Kansas, a reporter asked him “There’s still a lot to play for this season, right?”

Drake paused, angrily furrowed his brow and blinked before replying.

“Of course,” he said.

The reporter, prodding back, said “People want to act like—”

“Who’s people?” Drake interrupted, as the frustration on his face grew. “That’s natural, but I come in here day in and day out and (spend) 10 hours of my day up here because there’s a lot to play for. I bust my tail year round for this, so I’m not really listening to what people say. … I don’t care if we’re 0-8 right now.

“I love to play football. I love my teammates. I love my coaches, and I love the University of Oklahoma. It’s really that simple.”

The exchange quickly fastened Drake deeper into Sooner lore. For him, it’s that simple. He’s worked, by no exaggeration, 10 hours each day to find his success. In turn, he’s done exactly what he envisioned and so much more.

“Everybody had a chance to see 100% who Drake is … with that video,” Gundy said. “I mean, you just know, when somebody comes from the heart and they have passion, and that’s what he does. What he said was 100%. That made him so frustrated when somebody asked him that question, because in his mind you that’s not even a question. You don’t even begin to even say or even think anything like that. He cemented his legacy with OU football forever with that video.

“He was doing it by the way he played with his hard work, but he definitely did it with that video.”

Barnes, who is now rebuilding Yukon High School’s football program, showed Drake’s exchange to his football team on his smart board. The Millers finished 1-9, and he wanted to use Drake as an example for what the standard should look like.

“That response was just flawless,” Barnes said. “It was perfect. And in the moment, too, it just shows like that’s just who he is. I mean, that wasn’t rehearsed. That wasn’t coached up that was that was a knee jerk response that couldn’t have been said or put in any better way.”

Alongside former coaches and teammates, Drake has also earned his fair share of compliments from Brent Venables, who is known not to dish out many flowers. What people haven’t seen, however, is how much OU’s head coach appreciates his leadership amid the struggles of last season.

Tyler does his best to call Brent every Sunday to catch up on how he’s doing, OU football and more. Drake has been a topic of many conversations lately.

“What I’ve heard from my dad is that’s the one guy and that’s the attitude that you literally want to build a program off of,” Tyler said. “That commitment, you can’t find that in today’s day and age college football. Because of the transfer portal and all this other stuff. … Drake’s truly been that example.”

On Monday, as the sun set over Norman and the lights shined over OU’s practice field, Drake stood in a crowd of media members. He smiled. He laughed, and — in some moments — he reflected.

That was likely the last regular season Drake Stoops’ media scrum ever, but, amid the chaos of reporters, he handled like he always has — consistent, a hint of fire and a boat load of competitiveness.

As he finishes his career, Drake has a shot to be drafted into the NFL, if he makes it into the right system. In the eyes of OU’s head coach, he’s destined to have success anywhere because of the body of work and consistency he showcased at Oklahoma.

“You’re going to have a line of people from here to Padre Island ready to hire you,” Brent has said in some of the closing moments of his career.

For one final time in Norman, “STOOPS” chants will rain down on Drake for his commitment, his consistency, and, most of all, the creation of his own legacy. At one point, he hated hearing that chant because, according to Basquine, because of the previous relevance it had to his father.

But, unlike the first time he stepped onto Owen Field, he knows now that chant is only for him.

Not bad for a coach’s kid.