‘That cut was deep’: After a bitter parting, Tennessee coach

in the bowl game, Brent Venables’Clemson defense closed down the Sooners in a humiliating defeat. “Bob had to make a modification, “Gundy recalled.”I don’t understand, it was tough. … it wasn’t simply has a hard time on the offensive side. However Bob had to make that choice. An amazingly tough call. “Heupel was– and stays– OU royalty. In 2000, he quarterbacked the Sooners to their seventh championship game; OU hasn’t won a title since.Heupel later on proved to be a valued assistant during the Sooners’prolific run through the 2000s. He mentored Heisman Trophy-winning

quarterbacks Jason White and Sam Bradford. In 2011, Heupel became offensive organizer, and over the next 4 seasons, OU balanced 475 yards per game, 10th-best in college football throughout that span.But in 2014, Stoops understood that his Sooners needed a trigger. Therefore, soon after meeting Gundy, Stoops fired Heupel, later calling it the”worst day”in his 18 years as OU’s coach. “I have this deep appreciation for Josh, definitely firstly as a player, “stated Venables, OU’s coach now and its co-defensive organizer when Heupel starred for the Sooners. “I have actually always looked back and said, ‘Guy, we couldn’t have actually done it without Heupel. ‘His leadership, what he was able to do from a change standpoint to our locker room, the guts and the toughness that he played through. … I have actually constantly held him up here on this pedestal, from a player’s perspective.”Saturday, for the first time given that the shooting, Heupel returns to the arena where he ended up being a Sooners legend. In his fourth season at Tennessee, Heupel brings the rising sixth-ranked Volunteers to Norman for OU’s long-anticipated very first conference game as a member of the SEC.Heupel has minimized the significance of the reunion. He has likewise avoided opening about the shooting. Heupel said Monday that he was “tremendously grateful “for the opportunity OU offered him, both as a quarterback and a coach.”I wouldn’t be here,” he stated,” if I didn’t have all those experiences.”Those close to Heupel, nevertheless, know the firing hurt.”I hope adequate time [has passed] that he still comprehends how much he suggests to this state, how much he implies to the program, “Bradford said.”I hope that he gets a warm reception. I hope that he’s able to value that and take that in before the

game starts. ” Quarterback Josh Heupel led Oklahoma to a national championship in 2000. Andy Lyons/Getty Images HEUPEL GOT HERE IN Norman in 1999, months after Stoops took over a struggling OU program that had reached a nadir. Sincethe end of The second world war, the Sooners had actually boasted more victories(443)than any other school. But OU had not taken pleasure in awinning season given that 1993. Stoops hired Air Raid expert Mike Leach from Kentucky to call plays. Right away, Leach went searching for a quarterback. He ended up targeting an unknown left-handed junior college transfer from Snow College in Utah. “I have no idea how Leach discovered Josh Heupel,”said Tulsa

offensive planner Steve Spurrier Jr., son of famous Florida coach Steve Spurrier and part of Stoops’very first OU staff. “But among the truly important variables for Leach when he hired quarterbacks was, what kind of conclusion percentage did they have? He does not need to hit deep balls. Doesn’t have to have a truly strong arm. But he needs to throw conclusions. That was always essential in his offense. And that was always essential in his examination of quarterbacks.”Heupel didn’t have the rocket arm longed for by NFL scouts or other blue-blood college programs. He could not run much, either. But Heupel might put the ball on the cash. And, as a coach’s child, he understood where to choose it, too. That first year, Heupel invested much of his free time with Leach mastering the Air Raid, an offending plan developed to spread the field and attack the defense with fast passes.”Josh was a QB rat. He wasn’t into going out and partying. He was a football addict,”Gundy stated.”That was perfect for Mike Leach, due to the fact that obviously Mike liked to stay up late at night.”That very first season, for a program best known for Barry Switzer’s wishbone running attack, Heupel led all Power 5 quarterbacks with 310 completions, as Stoops ‘Sooners showed promise.

“We had the players. We just needed to get the ideal coaches, structure, discipline. … and the ideal quarterback,”stated Rocky Calmus, an All-America linebacker for the Sooners then.”

Josh would be the very first to inform you he didn’t have the strongest arm, however he was precise. He read it and he could put it where it needed to be.” The Sooners were on the method

up. Yet almost no one considered them national championship contenders heading into 2000. OU opened ranked 20th in the preseason polls. The night before their very first preseason practice, Heupel attended to the group and informed them they required to intend higher.” I wish somebody had tape-recorded it. To this day, it’s the very best speech I have actually ever heard,”said White, a redshirt freshman that year.”

His whole point was, why not us? He kept stating it. Why can’t we win the Big 12? Why can’t we win a national championship?” Gundy and Spurrier stood at the back of the room. When Heupel uttered “national championship, “they looked at each other in shock. “We were not gotten ready for that.

However Josh Heupel was,”Gundy stated. “The belief that Josh Heupel had and what he portrayed while he was here got this whole group going. The belief that we might be better than everybody, that we might win every game– that came from Josh Heupel.”Editor’s Picks 1 Associated Flying under the radar, the Sooners roared through a three-game stretch that OU fans would term”

Red October.”The Sooners obliterated No. 11 Texas 63-14, then knocked off second-ranked Kansas State 41-31. That established a showdown against top-ranked Nebraska. The vaunted Huskers rapidly jumped to a 14-0 lead.” We

could not have actually started any even worse, “stated Torrance Marshall, OU’s other star linebacker then together with Calmus. “However Josh didn’t blink an eye. He didn’t let that minute be too huge for him and had the management to bring us back.”With two Huskers in his face, Heupel lofted a 34-yard touchdown hand down third-and-14 to Curtis Fagan

in stride to connect the game. The Sooners rolled the rest of the method to win 31-14 and claim the No. 1 ranking in the polls.Like any other player, Heupel still had nerves. Calmus remembered him either throwing up or dry heaving in the locker room prior to every game. Calmus would wait for him to” get it out, “as the 2 captains normally took the field last. But Heupel’s behavior while on the field assisted offer those Sooners a distinct resiliency. “He was remarkably calm in who he was, “Spurrier said.

“A calm confidence about him that rubbed off on other people.”The Sooners didn’t constantly win easily. However they remained calm in tight minutes, especially in significant success over Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Kansas State once again in the Huge 12 national championship. The undefeated Sooners advanced to the Orange Bowl to deal with Florida State for the national

title. The defending champion Seminoles, led by 28-year-old quarterback Chris Weinke, were double-digit favorites to repeat.Before flying to Miami, the Sooners held a watch celebration at their team facility to see if Heupel won the Heisman Prize. Rather, Weinke narrowly edged out Heupel in one of the closest Heisman votes in history.”I felt that Josh got robbed,”Marshall said.”I was prepared to show [Weinke] why he shouldn’t have gotten it.”Starting with the Orange Bowl coin toss.”I informed [Weinke],’You got my boy’s trophy,’and he

stated,’ No, I do not.’I stated,’ Yeah, you do– and we’re going to find out today, ‘”Marshall remembered. “And I suggested it. I was dead severe about it. … We wished to head out there and show them that we were the much better team, we had the much better quarterback, and you guys did make a mistake and didn’t offer the ideal individual the Heisman. “The OU defense forced Weinke into three turnovers, including a Marshall interception, and didn’t enable the Seminoles offense to score. Heupel and the Sooners did adequate offensively to win 13-2, capping off a wonderful season. “We backed it up,” Calmus said. “It was best. We got the main prize. ” Said previous Oklahoma Heisman winner Jason White of Josh Heupel: “I remember thinking to myself then, that man’s going to be a terrific coach.”Jackson Laizure/Getty Images HEUPEL CAME BACK to OU in 2004 as a graduate assistant, dealing with White and the other quarterbacks.”I remember thinking to myself then, that man’s going to be an excellent coach,”White stated,” just because of how he’s managed me.” In 2006, after a brief stint at Arizona, Heupel returned to OU to be its quarterbacks coach. That preseason, starting quarterback Rhett Bomar was dismissed from the group for accepting money from a local car dealer for work he didn’t do. On the fly, Heupel helped Paul Thompson change from receiver to playing quarterback again

. Thompson wound up throwing for 22 touchdowns, as OU won another Big 12 title.After every practice that season,

Heupel spent a half hour separately dealing with Bradford, then a redshirting freshman manning the scout group. Two years later on, in 2008, Bradford won the Heisman, leading a record-setting OU attack that scored 60-plus in 5 straight games. “He was the single biggest influence in my football career,”said Bradford, taken by the Rams as the very first overall pick in the 2010 draft. “He believed in me before I thought in myself. He saw something in me that I hadn’t rather seen in myself. And he figured out a way to bring it out of me.”Allstate Playoff Predictor How will Saturday’s leading games affect the College Football Playoff chase? What are the present odds for the top 4?

The Allstate Playoff Predictor has the answers. Check back every week as the odds are updated following that week’s games. Heupel likewise hired Landry Jones, who took over for Bradford and ended his profession with 16,646 passing lawns, one of the most of any Power 5 quarterback in college football history.”He had a big hand in all of it

,”Jones said.”If you’re going

to call any school Quarterback U now, you have to start with Oklahoma. And you think of the guys that he had, and just the quarterbacks at Oklahoma, it began with him. “White even kept in mind stopping by OU exercises in 2018 and seeing Heisman winner Kyler Murray practicing the exact same footwork drills that Heupel had taught him back when he was a freshman practically twenty years previously.”Josh truly set the tone for what it was to play quarterback at the University of Oklahoma, “White stated.” He set the standard.”White, Bradford and others concerned think that Heupel was on track to possibly prosper Stoops as OU’s head coach. That all changed in 2014. After firing Heupel, Stoops replaced him with East Carolina offensive planner Lincoln Riley, another Leach protégé out of Texas Tech. 3 years later on, Stoops retired and OU named Riley its head coach instead. Under Riley, OU advanced to the playoff in 3 consecutive years with 3 different quarterbacks: 2017 Heisman winner Baker Mayfield, Murray and Alabama transfer Jalen Injures; all 3 are now NFL starters.But in 2021, Riley strikingly bolted OU for USC.”

No matter why he got fired, we lost a guy that really thought in Oklahoma football, and those are the guys you want,”White stated of Heupel.

“We lost a fantastic coach with limitless potential.” Josh Heupel’s 2024 Tennessee team has outscored its opponents 191-13 through three weeks. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images HEUPEL’S POTENTIAL AS a head coach is lastly being recognized at Tennessee. A years after being fired at Oklahoma, Heupel has reemerged with one of the hottest teams in college football.

The Vols have actually won their very first three games by a typical margin of 59 points.UNLV coach Barry Odom, an Oklahoma native, kept in mind dealing with Heupel while playing linebacker for Missouri in 1999. Odom enjoyed talking trash to opposing quarterbacks. Heupel was the only quarterback who

talked back.”His competitive spirit is unrivaled,”Odom stated.”He brings a chip on his shoulder, but he utilizes it in an extremely productive way. … he’s a stone-cold killer. That’s the way he played, and that’s the way he coaches.”When Odom got the head job at Missouri in 2016, he worked with Heupel from Utah State. In his one year with the Aggies, Heupel had hired and signed Jordan Love, who is now the

beginning quarterback for the Green Bay Packers.Over Heupel’s 2 seasons as Missouri’s offensive planner, the Tigers ranked 6th nationally in both yards per dropback (8.01)and passing goals(69 ). Before the 2018 season, UCF athletic

director Danny White provided Heupel his shot to be a head coach. Three years later on, White brought Heupel with him to Tennessee. “We were just actually impressed with the level of understanding of the offense,”

White stated,”going back to his time as a player at Oklahoma playing in it and after that how he’s evolved it and adjusted it depending on the personnel– and the method he explained it was just next level.”In Heupel’s second season in Knoxville, Tennessee went 11-2, including three straight wins over ranked opponents, which culminated with a thrilling 52-49 triumph over No. 3 Alabama.This year, headlined by electrical freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava, Heupel appears to have his best Tennessee team yet.Stoops has decreased to do any interviews this week about Heupel’s return, pointing out the”excellent regard”he has for Venables and for

Heupel, whom he noted was”the driver “for OU’s return to prominence this millennium.But Venables said he isn’t shocked how Heupel has bounced back, noting that “he’s always been a winner.”Gundy isn’t shocked, either.”Rather of moping on it, home on it, he kept

his direct and found another location, “Gundy stated.”He’s not done anything but run with it since. “Marshall has actually stayed close with Heupel, bonded by the championship game they won

together. Marshall, who has attended a half-dozen Vols games, stated he was”dissatisfied “when OU fired Heupel.

However although”that cut was deep, “Marshall mentioned “it led him to where he is”– leading the Vols. “That just shows what kind of character and what kind of individual he is,”Marshall stated.”Lick your injuries and figure

it out. He simply went back to the drawing board. … put his head down and grinded it out. “The grind has actually brought Heupel back to OU, albeit on the

opposite sideline.Marshall stated it will be”emotional” for Heupel returning” to the place where everything began for him. “But he’s hoping Heupel can still”

feel the love” from a program he once helped return on the map.