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Why Josh Heupel Now Cherishes His Time and Relationships at Oklahoma
He led Oklahoma to a national championship, redefined quarterback play for the Sooners and ultimately followed his calling as a college football coach.
But when his stint as an offensive coordinator went sour, he was let go — fired by the very coach for whose team he guided to that national title.
Still, Josh Heupel insists his tenure in Norman was all good.
“The relationship with Oklahoma really isn't complicated,” Heupel said Thursday at SEC Media Days in Nashville. “I have got nothing but great memories of the people and my time there. I certainly do.”
Heupel’s OU memories began with his profound relationship with Mike Leach, the quirky offensive coordinator Bob Stoops hired from Kentucky who unearthed the crafty left-hander out of Snow Junior College. He said Thursday he was sharing memories about Leach and reminded of the good times at OU.
“Everybody there helped shape who I am and where I'm at today,” Heupel said. “Still got a lot of great friends and teammates that live back there.”
Josh Heupel
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Heupel’s recruiting visit famously consisted of him and Leach entrenched in a dark room watching football tape for hours on end. As a junior in 1999, after the Sooners under Gary Gibbs, Howard Schnellenberger and John Blake went five straight seasons without a winning record, he and Leach and Stoops became an instant hit in Norman.
Heupel threw for 3,460 yards and 30 touchdowns, completing 310-of-500 passes — all shattering whatever passing records a traditional Split-T/Wishbone could muster — as the Sooners went 7-5 and got to a bowl game.
The following year, fighting through a critically sore elbow, he was 305-of-472 for 3,606 yards with 20 touchdowns and was the driving force behind the Sooners’ seventh national championship and a program-best 13-0 record.
Heupel was a consensus All-American, AP Player of the Year and won the Walter Camp Award, the Archie Griffin Award and the Harley Award.
Heupel, the son of a coach, spent two training camps in the NFL, then got his coaching career started as a graduate assistant at OU. He went to work full-time in 2005 for Mike Stoops at Arizona as a tight ends coach, then came back to Oklahoma in 2006 to coach quarterbacks under Stoops and offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson.
Josh Heupel
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In 2011, Heupel was elevated to offensive coordinator, and he helped Landry Jones shatter every career passing mark at OU and ultimately become one of the most prolific passers in Division I history.
After Jones graduated, the Sooners’ quarterback position dipped. Recruiting tailed off, and the offense slowed drastically. Eventually, Bob Stoops tasked Heupel with installing a read-option attack, and he had to leave his Air Raid roots behind.
After the 2014 season crashed with a 40-6 loss to Clemson in the Russell Athletic Bowl, Heupel was fired. He resurfaced as offensive coordinator at Utah State in 2015, moved on to Missouri in 2016-17, and took over as head coach at UCF in 2018-20 before taking the Tennessee job in 2021.
Heupel has largely declined comment on his OU days since he was fired, and has mostly avoided big OU gatherings. That changed last year when he attended Roy Williams’ Hall of Fame enshrinement in Las Vegas, and took another step on Thursday, when he was asked about the Sooners joining the SEC. The Vols are one of OU’s four conference home games in 2024, so he anticipated the question would come.
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“The opportunity to go back to Oklahoma, yeah, I wish they were coming to Knoxville first,” he said. “I say that jokingly. But looking forward to that opportunity. That's a long ways down the road, man. Focused on '23.
“But that will be a unique day in my career, obviously, to go back there.”
Another unique day will come eventually — possibly soon. Heupel is on this year’s ballot for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. He already has the credentials as a player, and his high-profile resurgence as a coach at a traditional powerhouse like Tennessee will only strengthen his candidacy.
Realistically, enshrinement is only a matter of time.
“It's a great honor to be looked at in that way to be on the ballot to be potentially a part of the Hall of Fame,” he said. “A year ago, got an opportunity to recognize one of our teammates, Roy Williams, go in — such a special player and had such a huge impact on the game and what we did there at Oklahoma.
“Those things only happen, though, because of the players that I got an opportunity to be in the locker room with every single day. Very grateful to all of those guys, everybody on the offensive side of the ball, the offensive lineman. It was a special team and it's certainly made a huge impact in my life — part of why I'm up here today, to be honest. And so, forever indebted to those guys and very appreciative, but humbled by that recognition as well.”
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