New broke Wednesday that Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops was retiring from his role with the program, with Lincoln Riley promoted to take over the job. Stoops coached at Oklahoma the entirety of his 18-year head coaching career, dating back to 1999.
RELATED: Bob Stoops Net Worth: Retired Oklahoma Coach Made Bank
Stoops, who led the Sooners to 10 Big 12 championships and a National Championship in 2000, was the longest tenured FBS head coach in the country. His 18 years at Oklahoma was only matched by Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, who has been with the Hawkeyes since 1999.
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Now that Stoops is retired, Ferentz is the sole owner of the title of longest tenured head coach in all of FBS.
Here's a look at the longest tenured head coaches at the FBS level of college football:
| Coach | School | Conference | First Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kirk Ferentz | Iowa | Big Ten | 1999 |
| Gary Patterson | TCU | Big 12 | 2000 |
| Mike Gundy | Oklahoma State | Big 12 | 2005 |
| Frank Solich | Ohio | MAC | 2005 |
| Kyle Whittingham | Utah | Pac-12 | 2005 |
| Pat Fitzgerald | Northwestern | Big Ten | 2006 |
| Rick Stockstill | Middle Tennessee | C-USA | 2006 |
| Ken Niumatalolo | Navy | AAC | 2007 |
| Mark Dantonio | Michigan State | Big Ten | 2007 |
| David Bailiff | Rice | C-USA | 2007 |
| Troy Calhoun | Air Force | MWC | 2007 |
| Nick Saban | Alabama | SEC | 2007 |
| Dabo Swinney | Clemson | ACC | 2008 |
| David Cutcliffe | Duke | ACC | 2008 |
| Paul Johnson | Georgia Tech | ACC | 2008 |
These coaches all have 10 or more years of coaching at their current schools (Swinney, Cutcliffe and Johnson are entering their 10th year with their current teams).
RELATED: Bob Stoops Retires: Can Lincoln Riley Hang Onto Oklahoma's 2018 Recruiting Class?
Many of the staples of today's college football coaches were hired in 2012 — Urban Meyer at Ohio State, Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M, Hugh Freeze at Ole Miss, Mike Leach at Washington State, Larry Fedora at North Carolina, Jim Mora at UCLA, and more.
