Tennessee Vols HC Josh Heupel comments on returning to Oklahoma in 2024
One of the biggest college football games of the 2024 season will go down on September 21 when the Tennessee Vols take on the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman. The Vols' game against the Sooners will be Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel's first time back at Oklahoma since he was let go by then OU head […]
One of the biggest college football games of the 2024 season will go down on September 21 when the Tennessee Vols take on the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman.
The Vols' game against the Sooners will be Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel's first time back at Oklahoma since he was let go by then OU head coach Bob Stoops at the end of the 2014 season.
Heupel, a former Sooners quarterback who led the program to a national championship in 2000, was an assistant coach at Oklahoma from 2006 to 2014.
The Vols were originally scheduled to play a home-and-home series against Oklahoma in 2020 and 2024. The 2020 matchup, which was set to take place in Norman, was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The game in Knoxville that was scheduled to be played in 2024 was canceled in 2022 when it was announced that Oklahoma and Texas were set to join the SEC (that's why Tennessee is now playing Oklahoma on the road).
“You know, for me, from my coaching career to playing career, you know a lot of great relationships, a lot of great memories,” said Heupel at the SEC Meetings in Destin (via On3).
“So many people that have been a huge part of helping me as a player, grow as man, helped me in this profession as well," added Heupel. "So a lot of great memories, a lot of people that I still stay in touch with. Sister lives back there, dad lives back there as well. So it will be unique to go back and play inside of that stadium, being on the other sideline.”
The perception over the last decade has been there's bad blood between Heupel and Oklahoma because of the way his time with the program ended.
Heupel, however, insisted last summer during SEC Media Days that there's no bad blood with the Sooners.
"The relationship with Oklahoma really isn't complicated," said Heupel last July. "I got nothing but great memories of the people and my time there. I certainly do. And it's a huge — you know, I got a chance to talk about Mike Leach a few minutes ago backstage in the interview — everybody there helped shaped who I am, where I'm at today. Still got a lot of great friends and teammates that live back there. So the opportunity to go back to Oklahoma — wish they were coming to Knoxville first, but I say that jokingly — but looking forward to that opportunity."
Heupel is saying all the right things ahead of a much-anticipated matchup against Oklahoma. But deep down, I think most Vols fans know that the fourth-year Tennessee head coach badly wants to get a win in Norman this fall.
Recent comments from former Oklahoma DC Mike Stoops are ironic considering the way Josh Heupel was fired by Sooners
Wild the way that all went down
