Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables and Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel go way back.
The two were in the same program as a player and a coach, then spent many years coaching on the same staff.
The two have even won a National Championship together.
But coming this September, Heupel and Venables will be on opposite sides of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, OK.
“First time I will have been back,” Heupel said about returning to Norman this September during SEC Media Days on Tuesday. “It’ll be unique for myself to be on the other side of the sideline.”
Josh Heupel spent two years as the starting quarterback at Oklahoma in 1999 and 2000 after transferring in from Snow College. Venables, meanwhile, was the co-defensive coordinator for the Sooners during both of Heupel’s seasons in Norman. While the two were on opposite sides of the ball, Heupel and Venables developed a relationship that would only flourish over the coming years as their football journies continued.
Heupel threw for nearly 3,400 yards and 20 touchdowns while leading the Sooners to the 2000 National Championship title. Venables, on the other hand, helped orchestrate a defense that only allowed an average of 14.9 points per game throughout the 13-game stretch.
“I have this deep appreciation for Josh, certainly first and foremost as a player,” Venables said on Tuesday. “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. So I’ve always held him up here on this pedestal when it comes from a player’s standpoint.”
More from RTI: Josh Heupel Gives Optimistic Update For Two Tennessee Running Backs
Heupel would join the Sooners’ staff as a graduate assistant in 2004, left for Arizona in 2005, but returned to Oklahoma from 2006 to 2014 as the Sooners’ quarterbacks coach. Heupel was elevated to the co-offensive coordinator in addition to his QB role starting in 2011.
Once a coach and a player, Heupel and Venables sat on the same staff as assistant coaches for several years until Venables took a job at Clemson before the 2012 season.
It wouldn’t take too long before the former assistant coaches at OU were coaching on opposite sides of the same field despite being in different conferences. Heupel, leading OU’s offense as the co-OC, faced off against Venables, the defensive coordinator of the Clemson Tigers. The Tigers dominated the Sooners by a score of 40-6 in the 2014 Russell Athletic Bowl.
Both former coordinators went on to become successful SEC head coaches with Heupel taking over the Tennessee program in 2021 and Venables returning to Oklahoma as head coach in 2022.
“No surprise, as a coach’s son, the level of success that he has had as a coach,” Venables said of Heupel. “I’ve stayed in touch with him pretty much every step of the way through this process. We competed on the field in 2014, and he went to Utah State and then to Central Florida and then to Tennessee. So we’ve stayed in touch through those moments of success and some of the moments, the challenges a football season will bring you.”
More from RTI: WATCH: Josh Heupel Talks Vols’ Upcoming Team During SEC Media Days 2024
Heupel will now head back to Norman for the first time when the Volunteers open their SEC slate against the Oklahoma Sooners in their own first-ever conference game. Tennessee and Oklahoma will square off on September 21, week four of the regular season.
Heupel spoke about the emotion of returning to his old stomping ground during media days on Tuesday.
“First time I will have been back,” Heupel said about the September game this season. “It’ll be unique for myself to be on the other side of the sideline. 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. A lot of friends that are coaching on the opposing sideline that day, former teammates that will be coaching on that opposing sideline, too. So it’ll be unique to be back there, but excited to be there.”
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more from SEC Media Days this week.
