Latest college football news should ease any concerns that Vols fans have about Josh Heupel leaving in next few years
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel leaving for another job isn't a concern that many UT fans have. Heupel seems incredibly happy at Tennessee and he has the football program on a roll. In a sport where it can be difficult to create a positive culture (due to the large number of players and staff […]
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel leaving for another job isn't a concern that many UT fans have.
Heupel seems incredibly happy at Tennessee and he has the football program on a roll. In a sport where it can be difficult to create a positive culture (due to the large number of players and staff involved in a program), Heupel has managed to quickly build a family-oriented culture that is generating plenty of excitement among recruits and current players. There's zero reason for him to consider leaving.
There is one job, however, that if it were to open, would cause Tennessee fans to wonder if Heupel might leave.
And that's the Oklahoma job.
Heupel, of course, led the Sooners to a national championship as a player in 2000. And he was an assistant at Oklahoma for nearly a decade before then-OU head coach Bob Stoops let him go after the 2014 season.
While the relationship between Heupel and Oklahoma seems icy at best (even though Heupel said last summer that it's "not complicated"), it's understandable that fans could be concerned that he might be interested in coaching his alma mater.
It's impossible to know what Heupel would or wouldn't do in that situation. But one thing we know is that we won't get the opportunity to find out for a while what Heupel would do if the Oklahoma job comes open.
That's because Oklahoma gave Sooners head coach Brent Venables a six-year contract extension worth a little over $46 million this week.
Venables, who is incredibly loyal (he's worked for just three programs since getting into coaching in 1993), is 16-10 through his first two seasons at Oklahoma.
It looks like the Sooners feel like they have their longterm answer in Venables, which means they won't be trying to steal Heupel from Tennessee anytime soon.
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