Former Sooner QB and OC and now Tennessee coach knows how to win on Owen Field
On a post-Thanksgiving Saturday in 1999, Josh Heupel — the JUCO transfer that mad scientist Mike Leach had found on a Utah mountain somewhere — was quarterbacking the unranked 6-4 Sooners in his first Bedlam experience.
It was early in the game and the Sooners had a third down and long.
Across the way, on Owen Field’s east sideline, Oklahoma State’s scatological defensive coordinator Rob Ryan screwed up his face and started screaming: “F**k you, Hype. You’re a P***y! You’re a bitch!”
Ryan’s screams caught Heupel’s eye as he began barking signals from his shotgun position. He turned and faced Ryan, pointed ahead toward the Cowboy end zone and mouthed the words, “Watch this.”
You know what happened next, of course. A Heupel big-play pass to wide receiver Curtis Fagan — one of many that obliterated Ryan’s Poke-y defense in the Sooners’ 44-7 win. The win put an end to OSU’s previous two-game series win streak which contributed to ending John Blake’s head coaching career and led to Bob Stoops’ hiring and, well, you know the rest.
More importantly, that moment, which I witnessed firsthand in my role as a sideline photographer standing near Ryan that day, said all you need to know about the competitiveness of the man coaching the Tennessee Volunteers on that same field this Saturday night. Only this time it will be Heupel on the visitor’s sideline wearing the orange.
I would not be surprised to find Hype turn to the 80,000-plus Sooner fans — the same ones who still hold him dearly as the QB who won Oklahoma’s last national championship in 2000 — and flash a “watch this” when the No. 6-ranked Vols he is now coaching come to spoil the Sooner’s introduction to the SEC.
His motivation to win Saturday has been well-publicized this week. When Bob Stoops fired Heupel as his offensive coordinator a decade ago, it was a deep wound. The Sooner natty hero and later Sooner OC has more than enough motivation to win this game.
Meanwhile, early into this season, Oklahoma fans have grown increasingly anxious about the Oklahoma-Tennessee game, which kicks off at 6:30 pm Central Time in Norman and will be broadcast on ABC, after a day that will begin with Oklahoma country music star Blake Shelton joining the ESPN’s College Football Gameday team broadcasting from the campus’ South Oval.
OU’s first two outings showed serious deficiencies on the offensive line (which appears held together by duct tape), an affliction that only makes beginner QB Jackson Arnold’s introduction to Big Boy football all the more problematic. But, a better showing from the offense last Saturday against a tough Tulane team provided some hope.
And as kickoff approaches, the hope-springs-eternal nature of football psychosis has Oklahoma fans believing that yes, indeed, the Sooners can and will win this game.
The social media disrespect Tennessee fans (and perhaps most SEC-related observers) have spewed in anticipation of it has only fueled Sooner fandom’s John Belushi-esque charge to fight the Germans at Pearl Harbor in defense of the Oklahoma-homeland.
If Hollywood was writing this script, then indeed the Sooners would manage a comeback win and Jackson Arnold will be the hero. It has happened before. In fact, the Sooner’s last battle with Tennessee under the lights in Knoxville in 2015 launched the storybook Sooner magic legend of one fellow named Baker Mayfield.
Yes, it can happen. But will it?
That of course is why they play the game. And you and I watch.
But, if I were predicting this game, there is a reality that tells me that no matter how strong the Sooner defense is — and it is (in my opinion one of the top two or three best in the SEC) — the problems with Oklahoma’s offense will be too much to keep Tennessee from taking a scoreboard command of the game by the 3rd quarter. (Tennessee has only given up 13 total points in three games.)
I hope I am wrong.
But, even if you disregard my prediction, please don’t disregard my advice: Don’t taunt Josh Heupel.
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Photo credit: Knoxville News-Sentinel, The Oklahoman
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