Oklahoma reporter drops interesting nugget about relationship between Josh Heupel and Bob Stoops
The relationship between Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel and former Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops is believed to be "icy" at best. Heupel won a national championship at Oklahoma in 2000 while playing under Stoops before serving as an assistant coach on Stoops' staff at OU from 2006 to 2014. Stoops fired Heupel […]
The relationship between Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel and former Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops is believed to be "icy" at best.
Heupel won a national championship at Oklahoma in 2000 while playing under Stoops before serving as an assistant coach on Stoops' staff at OU from 2006 to 2014.
Stoops fired Heupel as the Sooners' offensive coordinator after the 2014 season.
Heupel doesn't talk much about getting fired by his alma mater. And he almost never mentions Stoops.
In 2019, Heupel told The Tulsa World that he hadn't spoken to Stoops since being fired by Oklahoma after the 2014 season.
From The Tulsa World in late 2019: Heupel said Friday night he has not spoken with Stoops since his 5-year-old departure.
Asked if he would like to do so, Heupel replied: “I don’t think twice about it. Some day our paths will cross again.”
Longtime Oklahoma reporter John Hoover, who covered Heupel as a player and as a coach at OU, joined Off the Hook Sports this week to discuss this weekend's matchup between Tennessee and Oklahoma.
Hoover suggested that Heupel and Stoops have been cordial in recent years, noting that he's seen them speaking at "after party" type events.
“He (Heupel) was at the Hall of Fame ceremony a couple of years ago when Bob Stoops went in,” said Hoover. “He (Stoops) was at the event when Josh was on the ballot and stuff like that. I’ve seen them hanging out together, after party type stuff. It’s interesting. They’re friends. They remain friends. I think there will always be that little divide. That, you know, how much does he really love me, he fired me kinda thing. But at the same time, I think Josh is his own man now. You can see the maturity in the way that he’s developed the program first at UCF and then at Tennessee. He developed it in his image and they’ve been successful.”
Only Stoops and Heupel know the real status of their relationship. And neither of them are talking about each other this week. So I guess we'll just have to continue to use our imagination when it comes to whether or not Heupel still holds a grudge against Stoops nearly a decade later.
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