Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel embraced his Oklahoma questions on Monday morning.
“I thought I handled the first one really well,” Josh Heupel said with a laugh when asked how comfortable he is fielding Oklahoma questions just three minutes into his weekly Monday morning press conference.
The Vols’ head coach is right. While he can sometimes be shorter with his words on certain topics, Heupel gave long, genuine answers when speaking about his emotions heading back to Oklahoma this weekend.
Heupel’s 183-word answer on returning to OU to start the media session included his excitement to see friends and teammates from his time in Norman and the respect he has for people he is familiar with there. The Vols’ head coach didn’t give any bulletin board material either as he took the chance to embrace the storyline and speak highly of his time there.
Heupel took several questions with some sort of Oklahoma link during his 15-minute press conference and handled each with care. That doesn’t mean that Heupel didn’t try to get in a quick joke in one of his answers, though.
“Should be a great crowd,” Heupel said about what his players can expect with a game in Norman. “It’s a passionate fanbase. I’m expecting them to be extremely quiet for us out of respect to me and our program, too.”
Even the Vols’ veteran coach couldn’t help but let out a smile after dropping that line.
As Heupel knows, the Oklahoma fanbase may very well find an extra gear for this Saturday night’s 6:30 p.m. local time kickoff against the Vols. With ESPN’s College GameDay in town and an entire day to “prepare” for this game, Oklahoma’s fanbase is going to bring the noise in this marquee matchup.
There are also the added elements of Oklahoma’s former championship-winning quarterback returning to Norman, Oklahoma’s first game (and home game) as an official member of the SEC, the battle of highly-touted quarterbacks with Nico Iamaleava and Jackson Arnold, and much more.
“It will be unique,” Heupel said about returning to OU on Saturday. “I have teammates and friends back there. They hit me up a little bit earlier. They were starting last week already. It will be unique going back into that stadium. It’s going to be a (different) viewpoint. I am not sure I spent a day on the opposing sideline inside the stadium — not even for scrimmage. It will be different. But it is one that I am really looking forward to.”
Oklahoma and Tennessee both bring in Top 7 SEC defenses into the game, though that ranking is a bit skewed for some teams until a handful of conference games are played. The Sooners defeated Temple 51-3, Houston 16-12, and Tulane 34-19 in their first three games, all taking place in Oklahoma’s home stadium.
Tennessee, on the other hand, has not allowed an opposing offense into the endzone through 12 quarters this season. The Vols defeated Chattanooga 69-3, No. 24 NC State 51-10, and Kent State 71-0 in their first three games.
No. 15 Oklahoma will host No. 6 Tennessee this Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET in Norman, OK.
Check out Josh Heupel’s full press conference from Monday morning below. Josh Heupel’s joking answer about the Oklahoma fans starts at 4:00.
