Why Brent Venables Didn't Want Josh Heupel to Come to Oklahoma (At First)

Venables was OU's co-defensive coordinator when Heupel became the Sooners' QB, but on Saturday, Heupel will return as Tennessee's coach.

Former Oklahoma QB Josh Heupel / Robert Deutsch - USA TODAY Network via Imagn Content Services, LLC

In 1999, Oklahoma coach Brent Venables, then the Sooners' co-defensive coordinator, watched from the coaches offices overlooking a turf practice field to scout a junior college quarterback on his visit from Snow College.

The left-hander was just playing catch, but just by looking at him and watching the ball wobble in the air, Venables had decided Josh Heupel wasn’t good enough to be a Sooner. 

But, fortunately for the near future of OU’s football program, Venables wasn’t in charge of the Sooners’ offense or deciding who was recruited to play on it. Mike Leach was in charge of the offense at that point, and like most during Leach’s career, Venables thought Leach was out of his mind. 

“We didn’t know anything about Josh,” Venables says 25 years later, now OU’s head coach preparing to play Heupel’s Tennessee club on Saturday night. “... He was playing catch. And again, I’m saying this with incredible appreciation and respect for Josh. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Don’t judge a book by its cover. 

“He was skinny and just frail. It was the middle of winter; was kind of pasty. The ball was coming off – he was southpaw, probably hadn’t played in a couple months – the ball was wobbly. Josh could occasionally do that. And we’re like, ‘That ain’t it.’” 

But Heupel wound up helping change the trajectory of Sooner football. After five seasons in a row without a winning record, OU was 7-5 in Heupel’s first season leading a record-setting offense in 1999. Leach then left after only one year to become the head coach at Texas Tech and was replaced by Mark Mangino. Heupel had one more season that still hasn’t been topped, or even matched, at Oklahoma. 

Heupel led the Sooners to an undefeated 13-0 record and national title in 2000, the last time OU won a national championship in football. He was the Heisman Trophy runner-up, an All-American, Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, AP College Football Player of the Year and Walter Camp Award winner. 

“I don’t know what the culture was like before we got here so it’s not really fair for me to say that he changed it, other than, there was some brokenness, and he brought people together,” Venables said Tuesday at his weekly press conference “And he was able to relate to people regardless of what they come from. And that’s a cool thing about a locker room. Sometimes it’s not as easy to get it to mesh – everybody from all these different backgrounds and what not – but it was for him. And he led the way, offense to defense.” 

An elbow injury meant Heupel never stuck in the NFL so he used that locker room charisma and started his coaching career in 2004 as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, OU. After a year at Arizona, he returned to be the Sooners’ quarterbacks coach from 2006 to 2010. He was then promoted to offensive coordinator in 2011. 

The breakup wasn’t pretty 2014, though. Heupel’s former coach Bob Stoops had to let Heupel go after the offense wasn’t producing like he wanted. Heupel went on to Utah State then to Missouri as an offensive coordinator. He got his first head coach job at Central Florida, where he went 28-8 in three seasons before leaving for Tennessee, where he is today. 

Heupel hasn’t returned to OU since that 2014 departure. But at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, he’ll lead the Volunteers into Gaylord Family-Memorial Stadium. His No. 6-ranked Volunteers are 3-0 and outscored their three nonconference opponents 119-13, the largest margin in SEC history. 

And on the other sideline will be the coach who at first didn’t want Heupel at a program that at one point also didn’t want him as a coach. But Venables has admitted he was wrong about his first impression of Heupel and has shown nothing but respect to him as a coach, as well. And Venables expects the same from an OU fan base Heupel gave so much to. 

“I know speaking from coaching, and again also being a fan, I was a fan, too, there can’t be someone with a stronger legacy – he’s a national championship (quarterback),” Venables said. “... Several games within that year (2000), Oklahoma was an underdog, or again, had to come from behind in those games where you really felt Sooner Magic was reignited. And he was a catalyst of that. And people won’t forget that. As we all know, that’s one of the coolest things about college football, it brings so much joy, you reflect to so many moments that enriches your life because of those moments of success and winning and overcoming. We all feel like we were a part of that. So both personally and professionally. 

“Make no mistake, Oklahoma fans, they want to see Coach Heupel take a loss on Saturday night. And there will be nobody that feels bad if they don’t do well. We know that. But people pull for people. And I think this is one of those times that you put the logo aside. He’s got an amazing legacy at this university.”