FanHouse Bob Stoops

If you believe rumors, then Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops would be interested in coaching Notre Dame should the Irish send Charlie Weis packing after five seasons.

The initial thought: Yeah right.

"That's ridiculous," Stoops said of the reports on Monday.

Money, it's been said, can't buy you happiness. It also can't guarantee a Top 25 football team either.

There are at least 31 head coaches in the BCS ranks that will earn more than $1.8 million this season, according to a salary study conducted by USA Today.

Of the nation's 31 highest-paid head college football coaches in America, only nine are currently coaching teams in this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll. That leaves 22 of the nation's 31 highest-paid coaches outside the AP Top 25.

Of those 22 coaches, five have a losing record this season -- Florida State's Bobby Bowden (4-5), Wake Forest's Jim Grobe (4-6), Virginia's Al Groh (3-6), Washington's Steve Sarkisan (3-6) and Maryland's Ralph Friedgen (2-7) -- and another is at .500 -- Michigan State's Mark Dantonio (5-5).

Four of the 22 coaches are in the cellar in their respective conferences -- Missouri's Gary Pinkel and Kansas' Mark Mangino (each tied for last in the Big 12 North), Michigan's Rich Rodriguez (tied for last in the Big 10) and Friedgen (tied for last in the ACC Atlantic).

The comparisons between the Texas Longhorns 2005 team and this season's team are inevitable.

At this point in the 2005 season, the Vince Young-led Longhorns looked pretty invincible. After a tough early season game against Ohio State , they romped over opponents with relative ease on the way to the BCS national title. These Colt McCoy-led Longhorns are doing the same with only their annual rivalry game against Oklahoma serving as the lone close challenge in putting together a perfect 9-0 record and a No. 2 national ranking.

It's just the second time since 1983 that the Longhorns have been 9-0. The other time, of course, was in 2005 when they put together an undefeated campaign that ended with a dramatic national championship victory over USC.

There is nothing new about Bob Stoops matching coaching wits with old mentor and boss Bill Snyder. They've done plenty of that over the years in Big 12 cross-divisional play.

But that doesn't mean Stoops isn't a little surprised to see Snyder, 70, back on the Wildcats sideline. The longtime Kansas State coach retired four years ago to pursue opportunities outside coaching, but was lured out of retirement last winter.

Stoops, whose 22nd-ranked Sooners host the Wildcats on Saturday, admits it's a little unexpected to be going up against his old boss again, but he was stunned when Snyder was no longer there, too.

It's the great mystery in Norman, Okla., right now.

Is quarterback Sam Bradford's career over at Oklahoma? Will the 2008 Heisman Trophy winner opt for surgery to repair the sprained AC joint in his right shoulder? Could he play again this season or next?

Those are all burning questions that Sam Bradford was supposed to address following Wednesday's Oklahoma Sooners practice, but he called off a scheduled press conference. Oklahoma associate athletic director for media relations Kenny Mossman told FanHouse that Bradford wants to gather more information. There is no rescheduled date set and that Bob Stoops will not be taking any questions on Bradford after practice.

Whether or not Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford returns to the Sooners this season, or if he has indeed played his last college game, seems to be anybody's guess.

DALLAS -- The play and the driving hit on a blitz from a Texas cornerback that left Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford squirming on the ground seemed eerily familiar Saturday afternoon at the Cotton Bowl.

Just a week after Bradford returned from a four-week rehab stint after suffering a third-degree AC joint sprain in his right throwing shoulder, he re-injured that same shoulder again early in the first quarter and did not return during the 20th-ranked Sooners' 16-13 loss to No.3 Texas in the annual Red River Rivalry.

It's not like Texas and Oklahoma ever needed a reason to make their annual Red River Rivalry game in Dallas any more intense.

The tradition of the two programs, the bordering states and the fight for superiority in fertile recruiting ground of Texas use to be enough. Who knew this early season game would take on so much more meaning when both teams joined the Big 12 in 1996?

This game has become about so much more than school pride and bragging rights, as one of these two teams has won the South each of the last 10 years, and it has sometimes set the stage for the national championship picture.

After two weeks of will he or won't he, Oklahoma announced Friday that Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Sam Bradford will return to the lineup for Saturday's Big 12 opener against Baylor.

Bradford, a junior, has missed the Sooners' (2-2) last three games and has been sidelined since the end of the first half of their season-opening loss to BYU (Sept. 5) with a sprained A-C Joint in his right throwing shoulder. There had been some speculation Bradford might return last week for the Miami game when he started throwing with the team for the first time, but it was determined the shoulder wasn't quite ready.

The news just seems to keep getting worse for the Oklahoma Sooners.

Coach Bob Stoops confirmed Monday that leading receiver Ryan Broyles (right) will miss the next four to six weeks with a broken left shoulder. Broyles, who has caught 23 passes for 346 yards and seven touchdowns, broke his shoulder during Saturday's 21-20 loss at Miami.

The Sooners are still awaiting word on when Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Sam Bradford can return to action. He has been out since suffering a shoulder sprain during the season-opening loss to BYU. Stoops acknowledged Bradford's progress last week when he began working with the team for the first time, but it was determined he wasn't healthy enough to return to the lineup against the Hurricanes.