Report: Sooners’ Stoops Is Offered Florida Job

Oklahoma football Coach Bob Stoops reportedly has been offered a multiyear contract worth more than $3 million a season to succeed Steve Spurrier as Florida’s coach.

Stoops, who has a 31-7 record in three seasons at Oklahoma and guided the Sooners to the national championship in 2000, was the Gators’ defensive coordinator from 1996-98.

“It is coming very quickly,” a source close to the Florida athletic department told the Orlando Sentinel on Saturday. “There’s not going to be a lot of romance here.”

Stoops, who earned $2 million last season, met with Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione on Saturday for two hours. The paper said Stoops emerged from the meeting non-committal.

Stoops’ 2000 salary ranked second among college coaches to Spurrier’s $2.1 deal. When Stoops, 41, was hired by Oklahoma in 1998, his salary was $625,000, but he was given three raises in his first 18 months on the job. His current deal reportedly includes a buyout clause for $200,000.

If Stoops accepts Florida’s offer, he is expected to name brother Mark, the secondary coach at Miami, as the Gators’ defensive coordinator. The paper said another brother, Mike, who is Oklahoma’s associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator, would be in line to take over the Oklahoma post.

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Bill Diedrick, Stanford’s offensive coordinator the last four years, is following Tyrone Willingham to Notre Dame.

Diedrick, 55, has been hired by the new Irish coach as his offensive coordinator, with the mission of overhauling Notre Dame’s offense.

Willingham signed a six-year contract Monday.

Tennis

Jennifer Capriati won the Hong Kong Ladies Tennis Challenge, tuning up for her Australian Open title defense with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Elena Dementieva of Russia.

Dementieva led, 4-3, in the third set.

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Top-seeded Tim Henman of Great Britain rallied to defeat Spain’s Alberto Martin, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, in a semifinal of the Australian Men’s Hardcourt Championships at Adelaide.

Australia’s Mark Philippoussis beat Moroccan Hicham Arazi, 6-4, 6-1, in the other semifinal.

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Jan-Michael Gambill double-faulted on match point against Tommy Robredo, and the United States went on to lose to Spain, 2-1, in the Hopman Cup final at Perth, Australia.

After winning in singles, Robredo teamed with Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario to beat Gambill and Monica Seles in mixed doubles, 6-4, 6-2, clinching the title.

Seles, who won a Hopman Cup for her native Yugoslavia in 1991, gave the Americans a 1-0 lead by beating Sanchez-Vicario, 6-1, 7-6 (6).

Then Robredo, 19, evened the best-of-three series by defeating Gambill, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (2).

Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco rallied past Felix Mantilla of Spain, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, to win the $1-million Qatar Open at Doha.

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Unseeded Paradorn Srichaphan defeated fourth-seeded Andrei Pavel of Romania, 6-3, 6-4, in a semifinal of the TATA Open at Madras, India.

Top-seeded Guillermo Canas of Argentina beat unseeded Karol Kucera of Slovakia, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the other semifinal.

Baseball

Reggie Sanders signed a one-year contract with the San Francisco Giants, leaving World Series champion Arizona after hitting a career-high 33 home runs last season.

Sanders, 34, batted .263 with 90 runs batted in for the Diamondbacks. He is expected to play right field for the Giants and solidify the middle of a lineup that includes single-season home run champion Barry Bonds and former National League most valuable player Jeff Kent.

Boxing

Artur Grigorian of Uzbekistan defended his World Boxing Organization lightweight title for the 15th time, stopping Mexico’s Rocky Martinez in the eighth round at Magdeburg, Germany.

Grigorian improved to 34-0 with 22 knockouts.

Referee Paul Thomas’ decision to end the fight with 45 seconds left in the eighth drew boos from the crowd because Martinez didn’t appear to be in serious trouble.

Martinez dropped to 36-6-1.

Passings

Georg Ericson, the only coach to lead Sweden’s national soccer team to two World Cup finals, died Friday at Aaby, Sweden. He was 82.

Under Ericson, Sweden finished fifth in the 1974 Cup at West Germany and was eliminated in the preliminary round in 1978 at Argentina.