Oklahoma football: Bob Stoops, former assistant Kevin Sumlin to match wits in Cotton Bowl

“It's really not different,” Stoops said when asked about games against his former assistants. “Kevin and I are great friends. ... In the end, once you get to playing, you're playing.

“It's something you've got to go do.”

It's something Stoops has done in all but two of his 14 seasons that he's been Oklahoma's coach; he only went through 1999, his first season, and 2011 without meeting an opposing head coach who was once on his OU staff.

The Jan. 4 Cotton Bowl will be a little different, though, as it is the first time Stoops and a former assistant face off in a nonconference game.

Ten of the 17 prior meetings with former assistants came in Oklahoma's annual Big 12 South game against Texas Tech, led from 2000-09 by Mike Leach, Stoops' first offensive coordinator. Stoops was 7-3 against Leach's Red Raiders.

Mark Mangino left Oklahoma to become Kansas' head coach in 2002, and went 0-4 against his former boss.