Tennessee Vols: Josh Heupel's favorite Christmas gift as a child unsurprisingly had to do with football
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel has been a "football guy" since he was old enough to go to school. Heupel was obsessed with the sport at a young age. So much so that his favorite Christmas gift he's ever received was a Minnesota Vikings locker set for his bedroom when he was a kid. […]
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel has been a "football guy" since he was old enough to go to school.
Heupel was obsessed with the sport at a young age. So much so that his favorite Christmas gift he's ever received was a Minnesota Vikings locker set for his bedroom when he was a kid.
"Probably a set of lockers when I was like five years old," said Heupel on Wednesday when asked by a reporter about his favorite Christmas gift he's ever received. "I felt like my bedroom had turned into a locker room. I thought that was pretty cool."
This shouldn't come as a surprise. Heupel grew up the son of a football coach in South Dakota. And he started tagging along to football practice with his dad when he was only three years old.
At eight years old, Heupel already knew more about breaking down a defense than most diehard adult football fans know.
Here's a great anecdote about Heupel critiquing his dad's defense after a loss (via Orlando Magazine):
Once, when Aberdeen Central had suffered a crushing loss in the state semifinals, Josh was riding home with his father, sitting in the car’s passenger seat. As Ken recalls, Josh was only 8, so small that the seatbelt’s shoulder strap covered his mouth. He pulled the strap away so he could speak.
“Dad,” he said, “you know they were running a radar defense on third down?”
“Yes, son.”
Pause. Again, little Josh pulled the seatbelt strap away from his mouth.
“You know that with a radar defense the flats are open?”
“Yes, son.”
A longer pause, with a slight hesitation added in. Josh’s fingers pulled the seatbelt strap away from his mouth a third time.
“You know we only threw to the flats two times tonight?”
All these years later, Ken chuckles at the memory, recalling that it was another one of those “it” moments. He also recalls hoping his son didn’t pull that seatbelt strap away from his mouth a fourth time.
Football is just in Heupel's blood. That's a love for the sport that can't be taught.
Featured image via Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
