Dana Holgorsen and Bob Stoops opposed one another 13 times when Stoops was still the head football coach at Oklahoma and Holgorsen was an assistant and offensive coordinator at Texas Tech, the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State and the head coach at West Virginia.

Stoops won 11 times and lost twice, because of course Bob Stoops won double-digit games. He did it 14 times in 18 seasons.

Stoops had a grip on most of the Big 12. He got the better of most of his opponents. For that reason alone, his retirement, while unfortunate, because he really is popular among his peers, is good news for the folks who could not get past him.

The Sooners were and still will be the favorites to win the Big 12, and they were and still will be expected to compete for a College Football Playoff spot, but the constitution of those expectations simply cannot be the exact same today. For sure Stoops’ retirement and the baton pass to Lincoln Riley can create some openings, but those are openings the Sooners ought to be able to manage, if only in the short term.

So big-picture, over time, OU will be fine. Even this season, the Sooners should kick tail. When Athlon magazine’s preseason edition hit the grocery stores, there was OU predicted to finish No. 8 this coming season. And why not with Baker Mayfield returning at quarterback?

Yet might there indeed be a window of opportunity for the other Big 12 teams to sneak through? The answer is yes. There MIGHT be.

It all depends on the performance of Riley.

The Big 12 has been criticized for hiring assistants rather than “name” head coaches from other schools — with the exception of Texas’ Tom Herman. And here we go again. Riley was OU’s offensive coordinator the last two years before landing the gig Wednesday. Before that, he was the offensive coordinator for five seasons at East Carolina under Ruffin McNeill. He was a former walk-on QB at Texas Tech, where he got his start in coaching with Mike Leach.

I mean, I get it. All is going well at OU, so why rock the proverbial boat? The Sooners’ offense has been clicking. Shoot, Riley won the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant in 2015.

But that’s my point: assistant. It takes a while to morph from assistant to head coach. I’ve known that. I’ve seen that. I’ve covered football now for 37 years. Trust me on that one.

In the long run, Riley’s going to have to iron out this transition, make sure his age and experience are not used against him, keep all the people Stoops hired rowing in the right direction — Oklahoma’s staffing has been unusual in the past few years, if you haven’t noticed — and recruit. With the program’s reputation being where it is, talent acquisition is always going to be Oklahoma’s competitive advantage in the Big 12, but as is the case anywhere, it can be both vulnerable and volatile.

WVU seems to cross paths with the Sooners more often than it does with any other Big 12 program, and just this offseason we saw junior college receiver Marquise Brown and Kentucky transfer receiver Jeff Badet pick the Sooners while the Mountaineers were considered finalists. It’s fair to wonder today if they would have picked Oklahoma if Stoops was not there. Just last week, Fairmont Senior defensive lineman Dante Stills named his finalists: Florida, Oklahoma and WVU. There was hardly any interference on that end Wednesday, but there’s a splash and a ripple to follow now.