NORMAN, Okla. -- Bob Stoops has declared it before, and Jerry Williams swears it to be true.

Williams and Stoops met in the third grade in Youngstown, Ohio, and quickly bonded over sports -- including sharing the same favorite college football team, which happened to be 1,100 miles away.

“We couldn’t really deal with that Ohio State stuff,” said Williams, who would later be in Stoops’ wedding, and Stoops in his. “But we loved the style of OU football back then. They’d put the ball on the ground six times and still beat you 56-14.

“We loved it.”

By the time they reached high school, Stoops and Williams were painting their cleats silver to pay homage to Oklahoma halfback Joe “Silver Shoes” Washington.

Perhaps Stoops was always destined for Oklahoma, where over the past 18 seasons he has gone from a 38-year-old rookie head coach to now the longest-tenured one in college football.

“When I accepted this job, I knew it wasn’t a stepping-stone job, where you do well here and get a better job,” Stoops said.

“I thought all along this was the best job.”

As his contemporaries have retired, gotten fired or bolted for better jobs and greener pastures, Stoops is still going strong at Oklahoma. Coming off another Big 12 title and an appearance in the College Football Playoff, Stoops’ Sooners are ranked third in the polls going into this weekend’s opener at Houston.

“He’s enjoying it still,” said Matt McMillen, Oklahoma’s director of football operations and Stoops’ right-hand man in Norman since Season 1 in 1999. “He’s always said, if this wasn’t fun anymore, he’d find something else to do. But he loves being here, loves being around the players.

“His fire has not waned. At all.”

Stoops’ fire is what spearheaded Oklahoma’s resurrection at the turn of the millennium. Following three losing seasons under John Blake, the Sooners were a mess in 1999. Chicken bones littered the practice field, where fans had still been allowed to tailgate. Even more telling, the sign Bud Wilkinson put up coming out of Oklahoma’s locker room, “PLAY LIKE A CHAMPION TODAY” was dilapidated and missing letters.

But after only two years with Stoops at the helm, Oklahoma was a national champion again. Since then, the Sooners have captured an additional eight Big 12 titles and reached double-digit wins a dozen more times, including an 11-2 mark last season.

“We’ve had success. We’ve won,” Stoops said. “In our business, that’s a major part of it.

“It’s all worked out, fortunately.”

Such success has prompted others to try to pluck him away. Over the years, Stoops has been connected to several major job searches. Notre Dame. Michigan. Florida, where he previously was the defensive coordinator. Even the home-state Cleveland Browns and Ohio State Buckeyes.

Each time, Stoops has opted to stay put.

“Once he probably turned down Florida the second time [reportedly in 2005] -- I don't know, I don't get involved, very rarely does he ask me my opinion -- but I know he always loved Florida,” said his brother and Oklahoma defensive coordinator Mike Stoops. “I felt like if that wasn't something he was going to do, nothing ultimately would [cause him to leave]. I think he just loves the people here and has built strong relationships over those years that are beyond football.”

Bob Stoops credits the strong relationship he has with president David Boren and athletic director Joe Castiglione, who both were there the day he was hired in December 1998, as one big reason for staying all these years.

“It starts with the administration,” Stoops said. “If all of a sudden you and your bosses aren't on the same page, it’s easy to leave.”

If his wife and three kids didn't also love Oklahoma, leaving would’ve been easier as well, said Stoops, whom his assistants note has always “fostered” a family environment, whether that’s welcoming children in the building or giving his coaches time to go see their children’s after-school activities. This is a practice, McMillen points out, that has kept Stoops balanced and fresh, as much as it has the staff.

“This place has been great for my family,” Stoops said. “It’s always a major factor in decision-making, where you’re going to be. For my family overall, this has been a fantastic place to raise them. And the people here have been great.”

Stoops’ tenure in Norman hasn’t come without its tribulations.

In 2006, prized starting quarterback Rhett Bomar was caught taking money for hours he didn't work at a Norman-area car dealership, leading The Oklahoman newspaper to run the headline, “Tradition of scandal returns.”

Yet instead of excusing away the scandal, or worse, trying to hide it, Stoops immediately booted Bomar off the team, leaving the Sooners without a quarterback going into a promising season. But with wideout Paul Thompson manning quarterback, Oklahoma went on to win the Big 12 title anyway.

Ever since, the NCAA, which way back when seemed to have a bureau set up in Norman, has had no cause to return to question the football program.

“We’ve done it the right way,” Stoops said. “We’ve tried to do it the right way, within the rules. I can’t say there hasn’t been a mistake here or there. But we’ve done it the right way and we’re proud of that.”

Stoops faced another setback a few years later, when the program had begun to spin its wheels. After going 12 years without firing an assistant, Stoops began an overhaul of his staff in 2012. He brought back his brother to coach the defense, which spurred Brent Venables to take a job at Clemson, even though the Stoops brothers attempted to keep him. Two years later, after the Sooners went 8-5 and got blown out by Clemson in a bowl game, Stoops fired offensive coordinator Josh Heupel, who had quarterbacked the Sooners to that 2000 title, and replaced him with Mike Leach disciple Lincoln Riley.

Those moves were difficult to make. But they paid off big last year.

The Sooners averaged more than 47 points per game offensively, while topping the Big 12 in almost every major category defensively.

“I think he's happy,” Mike Stoops said of his brother. “Happy with the direction of our players and staff. He feels good about the players and the work ethic of our team. I think we're getting stronger as we go forward, and that's always a positive.”

More than a decade ago or so, Stoops confided in Williams that he didn’t think he would coach past the age of 55. Next week, Stoops will turn 56. And not far removed from a hip replacement that has relieved him of constant pain, Stoops said last month during Big 12 media days he could “hopefully go another 10 years or so.”

“He’s rejuvenated, he’s winning, he’s a healthy guy that doesn’t look his age -- I could definitely see him going another 10 years,” Williams said. “At this point, he could kick back and do whatever the heck he wanted.

“But he’s doing that now every day.”