After Billy Devaney heard Oklahoma had fired Mike Stoops, OU’s ensuing staff reorganization soon became more clear. Those changes meant Bob Diaco would coach on the field again. “I said, ‘Oh, my God, it’s like a hurricane is being unleashed in Norman,” Devaney said. “[Diaco] is so passionate and he’s going to bring so much of that to that group.”

A former head coach, defensive coordinator and Broyles Award winner, Diaco had been cooped up as OU’s defensive analyst, a relatively simple role he was hired in the offseason to handle. After the changes, interim defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill likened Diaco’s excitement level for coaching outside linebackers — on the sideline, not in an office — to letting “a wild tiger loose.”