It’s Personal, Not Just Business As Tennessee Heads To Oklahoma Behind Former Sooner Legend Josh Heupel

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Standing on the opposing sidelines in Norman, Okla., on Saturday night will surely bring back some emotional memories for Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel. 

There was a point in his early career of coaching that Heupel was the one calling plays for the Oklahoma Sooners, years after leading the team to a national championship. The history between the Vols head coach and his former school has been well-documented over the years, since he was fired by Bob Stoops in 2014 after leading the offense for four years. 

There’s a reason why Josh Heupel doesn’t make many appearances in Norman any longer, due in part to the breakup that occurred almost 10 years ago. It’s not that Heupel doesn’t love the school he played for, but rather how things ended, and the folks that still have a presence in the Oklahoma athletic department.

There’s no reason to get into the muddy details of what transpired years ago, but there’s also a reason why folks inside the Tennessee administration have kept their distance this week as Heupel prepares his Tennessee team for a trip back to his former school. 

For Oklahoma fans, this is the homecoming they’ve been waiting on for a long time. The former left-handed quarterback is a huge reason why the Sooners won the 2000 national championship. He was also a Heisman Trophy runner-up, the AP college football player of the year, an All-American, and the list goes on. How Josh Heupel was able to help the Sooners claim that national championship is why he’s still beloved to this day, and a reason why this game is so important, besides the obvious ramifications of the 2024 season. 

After spending eight years as a coach at Oklahoma under Bob Stoops, the former coach decided he was going to make some changes to his staff, which included offensive coordinator Josh Heupel. The breakup wasn’t pretty, and there is still animosity about how it all transpired in 2014.

For those around the Oklahoma program, it felt as though Bob Stoops fired Josh Heupel because he needed someone to blame for the 8-5 season in 2014, while Stoops kept his brother, Mike Stoops, as the DC even though they were giving up 25 points per game on average that season. 

Josh Heupel did not fall on the sword for Stoops, it was Stoops seemingly sticking the knife into Heupel’s back. 

So to say this game is personal for Heupel would be an understatement. The questions about the upcoming game were obviously going to come in waves, even dating back to this past SEC Spring meetings in Florida. His former boss, Bob Stoops, decided to put out a statement on social media this week declaring that he would not be partaking in any media interviews leading up to the game out of respect for Heupel and OU coach Brent Venables, both Stoops’ former assistant coaches. Honestly, Stoops could not have gone on social media to make the statement and the world would’ve been just fine, but I guess he felt the need to have his name thrown into the mix, if at least for a day. 

Entering his first press conference of the week on Monday, we all knew what the first question would be, and Josh Heupel handled it gracefully as he discussed the upcoming game against Oklahoma. 

“I wouldn’t be here today at Tennessee if I didn’t have all those experiences. So, I’m tremendously grateful for all those people. Brent (Venables) is somebody that I learned and grew from as a young coach so much, and a ton of respect for him. 

Looking back, being fired by Bob Stoops ended up working out for Heupel. He spent the following season at Utah State, before taking the offensive coordinator position at Missouri for the following two seasons. From there, he was named the head coach at UCF, leading the Knights to 28-8 record, which included a trip to the Fiesta Bowl in 2018. 

Then, Tennessee came calling in 2021, and Heupel hasn’t looked back since. 

Josh Heupel Has Done What He Needed For Fans, Players To Buy In

Josh Heupel hasn’t needed to say a word about the Oklahoma game from a personal standpoint, and he won’t use it as some motivational tool for his players on Saturday night before the Vols take the field. 

They already know how much this means to him, and so do the fans. 

If there’s one thing Josh Heupel has been able to do during his time in Knoxville, it’s understand the tradition that comes with being the head coach at Tennessee. Something that previous coaches failed to understand, didn’t care about, or simply decided not to embrace rubbed fans the wrong way. You don’t need to go all-in on the culture, but you damn-well better respect it if you’re going to get the rabid fan-base to buy in. And boy have they bought in, along with his team. 

As the Vols ran out of the tunnel last weekend in Neyland Stadium, they did it in front of a sellout crowd of over 100,000 people, for a game against Kent State. Thanks to the Vols roster filled with talent, the game was seemingly over by the second quarter whistle, but the fans stayed through at least the third quarter light show. That isn’t lost on players, or the administration. 

After blowing out each of their opponents over the past three weeks, it was time to focus on Oklahoma. 

For quarterback Nico Iamaleava, there’s a reason why we haven’t seen a bunch of crazy stats from the star, most of it due to the fact he’s played four quarters in two of the Vols three games. But while a lot of folks are enamored with the offense, rightfully so, it’s the defense that has made a statement in the opening month of September. 

And if we’re being honest, the fact that Josh Heupel is making sure to keep his defensive players at the forefront of the conversation around this Tennessee team is another reason why you’ve seen such a buy-in from his teams, not just this season. 

Tennessee Players Are Hoping To Win This One For Their Head Coach

The players trust him, believe in him, and embrace everything he has to say with a level of respect that is noticed by those within the football building. So when you see a player talking about the Oklahoma matchup this week during a press conference, and saying all the right things about the opposing team, and being respectful of the game, there’s also a part of them that’s ready to enact revenge on his behalf. 

We all know these guys see what’s on social media, or talk with each other in the locker room about how much this game means to their coach. You won’t hear Josh Heupel talking about it, but they know. The challenge is bottling up all of that energy and using it on the field Saturday night in Norman, Oklahoma. 

“For all the noise surrounding the potential of this football team this season, and the talent that they have, none of that matters this week,” one former recent Tennessee football player told OutKick this week. “You’ve got a room full of guys that know what Coach Heup did at Oklahoma, but they also know that something happened that made him want to stay away. If they get the opportunity, they’ll try their hardest to run it up on the Sooners. It’s not disrespecting those guys (Oklahoma), but it’s the love they have, we have for Heup.”

As the team arrives in Oklahoma on Friday afternoon, ther will be a flood of emotions that will likely overwhelm Heupel for a bit. It’s not like he hasn’t been back to Norman in the past ten years, he has, but he doesn’t put that stuff out on social media.  

Deep down, I can promise you that Josh Heupel hopes that he’s made the Oklahoma fans proud for what he’s accomplished in his career so far. He’s a Sooner, and will always hold a special place in his heart for the folks in Norman, just maybe not some folks inside the athletic building that he once called home. Norman is where he grew into a man, and learned to be a coach, which has led him to great heights sor far in his career. That’s not lost on Heupel, and it never will be. 

But on Saturday night, it doesn’t matter where he went to school, won a national championship or coached for eight years. 

The old saying is ‘It’s not personal, it’s just business’. 

For the guys making the trip with Josh Heupel this weekend, I can promise you it’s personal, and not just business.