Oklahoma kicks off its first SEC slate with a matchup that will spark some fond memories for Sooner fans.
On September 21, Josh Heupel’s Tennessee Volunteers come to Norman to kick off the Sooners’ SEC schedule in a reunion of sorts.
“I think it’s an exciting time to be in this league and really unique that I’ll have an opportunity to go back to Oklahoma,” Heupel said Tuesday at SEC Media Days.
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Heupel was the quarterback at OU from 1999-2000. His spectacular 2000 season resulted in the Sooners’ last national championship. That season, Heupel was involved in every big award. He was the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, All-American, AP POTY and the Walter Camp Award.
OU capped that season with an Orange Bowl victory over Florida State.
Shortly after Heupel’s playing career ended, he became an Oklahoma graduate assistant in 2004 before later becoming the quarterbacks coach from 2006-14. He was elevated to co-offensive coordinator for the final four years of that stint.
That run ended when he was fired by Bob Stoops in January of 2015.
He says he hasn’t been back to Norman since then.
“It’ll be unique for myself to be on the other side of the sideline,” Heupel said. “Obviously there’s been a lot of Saturdays where I was on the home sideline. But there are so many great teammates, friends that will be there.
“Got great respect for the university, the program,” he said. “A lot of friends that are coaching on the opposing sideline that day, former teammates that will be coaching on that opposing sideline, too.”
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One of those friends is Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables. Venables knows Heupel both as a player and as a fellow coach. He was a defensive assistant on the Sooners’ national title team and remained there through the 2011 season.
Between Heupel’s time as a player and coach at Oklahoma, he spent nine seasons working with Venables.
Venables gushed about Heupel as a player at SEC Media Days.
“I have this deep appreciation for Josh, certainly first and foremost as a player,” Venables said. “To experience my first national championship as a coach, I’ve always looked back and said, ‘Man, we couldn’t have done it without Heupel.’”
“His leadership, what he was able to do from a transformation standpoint to our locker room, you know, the guts and the toughness that he played through that 2000 season,” he continued. “So I’ve always held him up here on this pedestal when it comes from a player’s standpoint.”
Venables went on to call Heupel “a great friend.”
The respect and friendship goes both ways.
“I got great respect for Brent, playing while he was coaching, but also being beside him in the staff room,” Heupel said. “I don’t know that I ever forecasted they were coming into this league, Oklahoma.”
After experiencing years of success as both coach/player and fellow coaches, they now are the top men at two of the premier programs in college football. They’ll face off at Owen Field in September in Heupel’s homecoming.
“It’ll be a unique Saturday,” Heupel said.
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