During a heated conversation on the Fox Sports show “Undisputed”, host Skip Bayless brought up Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel. While Bayless and host Shannon Sharpe were discussing the Oklahoma head coaching vacancy, Sharpe made a reference to Oklahoma’s former national championship team. That allowed Bayless to whimsically connect the dots between that championship team and their quarterback, Josh Heupel.
“Well, we won the championship under Bob Stoops in his, what, second year,” Bayless said regarding Oklahoma on the Monday program.
“That was in 1999!” Shannon shouted back. “Skip, that was twenty-plus years ago!”
“Josh Heupel was our quarterback, maybe he is going to come back and save us,” Bayless replied while thrusting his arms out to his sides.
Bayless, who is known to be an eccentric figure, had a tone that didn’t seem to legitimately be pointing his finger towards Heupel as the top candidate for Oklahoma. But it is notable that even from a national televsion perspective, Heupel’s name is around that conversation to some extent. Even if it’s just enough to use it in a somewhat sarcastic manner.
While it hasn’t been the highest name of many potential candidate lists, Heupel’s name still is on the lists. Although, on Sunday, CBS Sports did list Heupel first in their collection of replacement options.
“He cut his coaching teeth as the Sooners’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach helping develop Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford,” CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd wrote. “However, Heupel was eventually fired by Bob Stoops in 2014 and replaced by Riley. There is believed to be some bad blood stemming from that move, and given Stoops is serving as interim coach, that could be a hiccup. That firing set Heupel on his course to UCF where he succeeded before eventually making it to the SEC and suddenly becoming a hot commodity again.”
Additionally, on Monday, betting odds did release in regards to the Sooners’ job. Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel was sixth on that list, sitting at +800 odds.
