No. 6 Tennessee and No. 15 Oklahoma will square off this Saturday night in one of the most highly-anticipated early-season contests of the college football slate.
While the game itself features two Top 15 programs, perhaps no regular-season game presents as many off-the-field storylines as this one: Oklahoma’s first SEC game, Oklahoma and Tennessee’s conference opener, a battle of highly-touted quarterbacks with Nico Iamaleava and Jackson Arnold, and, of course, Josh Heupel’s return to Norman.
Now-Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel was the quarterback for Oklahoma’s seventh and most recent claimed National Championship in 2000 and spent a good portion of his early coaching career with the Sooners. Heupel is a well-regarded football figure in the Oklahoma community, but a hot game week typically always presents some provocative opportunities.
As posted to X by AtoZ Sports’ Zach Ragan, the hosts of the T-Row In The Morning Show on 1400 KREF in Norman, OK, fired off some off-the-field shots at the Vols’ head coach on Monday morning.
Let’s check in on Oklahoma radio this week 😳 pic.twitter.com/G893i7N1Vq
— zach ragan (@zachTNT) September 16, 2024
More from RTI: Josh Heupel Jokes About A (Not-So-Likely) Expectation For Oklahoma Fans on Saturday
Social media and sports radio shows are going to be a hotbed for controversial comments this week as the Top 15 matchup looms on the horizon.
Perhaps it’s the unfamiliar-but-familiar relationship these two teams share, combined with the nature of both program’s first big game of the season, that presents such hot waters so early in the week.
Unlike fellow SEC newcomer Texas, who hasn’t played Tennessee in football since 1969, Oklahoma has battled against Tennessee twice in the last 10 years. The Vols and Sooners played a home-and-home in 2014 and 2015 with Oklahoma taking the first game 34-10 in Norman. Then, in 2015, an instant classic unfolded as Baker Mayfield’s Oklahoma Sooners survived a double-overtime contest to beat the Vols 31-24 in Knoxville.
The two teams haven’t seen each other in the near-decade since, but the intensity of that second game still remains fresh in the minds of fans on both sides.
There’s also the biggest and most obvious storyline with Josh Heupel’s return.
After winning the National Championship with the Sooners in 2000, Heupel spent a short time in the NFL but returned to the collegiate level as a coach after a shoulder injury derailed his playing career. Heupel began his coaching career back at Oklahoma as a graduate assistant under Bob Stoops in 2004 before becoming the tight ends coach with Arizona in 2005.
After one season in the desert, though, Heupel returned to his playing school as the Sooners’ quarterbacks coach in 2006. That would begin a long assistant coaching run for Heupel in Norman as he would eventually add the title of co-offensive coordinator to his resume in 2011. Heupel was fired by OU head coach Bob Stoops following the 2014 bowl season but took the opportunity to rework his offensive mindset for his next coaching route.
In a bit of a full circle moment just less than 10 years after being let go from Oklahoma, Josh Heupel now brings the sixth-ranked Volunteers back into his old stomping grounds this weekend for a Top 15 showdown against the Sooners.
Heupel spoke about the emotions of returning to Norman on Monday morning to start the Vols’ game week:
“It will be unique. I have teammates and friends back there. They hit me up a little bit early. 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. There are so many people have been a huge part of my journey that I get a chance to go back and, hopefully, get a chance to say hi to a bunch of them. It starts with teammates. It’s coaches that I had. It’s a lot of coaches that I coached with. There’s lot of personnel that are still there. Guys that I coached. Guy that was in my wedding. There’s a lot of people back there that I’m familiar with and have a lot of respect for.”
Check out Josh Heupel’s full Monday press conference here:
Check out the full hour from KREF here:
