The hype is real for the Vols. (Photo from TPL Tennessee IG)
The hype is real! Tennessee head coach, Josh Heupel is reviving an athletic program back to the glory days of being a powerhouse in college football. Athletic Director, Danny White, is the wizard behind the curtain for his hiring of coaches that have set the tone and standard that the University of Tennessee is an “everything school”. The hype is really real for Vol football.
Last night, Josh Heupel won on the road, at night, in Oklahoma, against his alma mater who also fired him. The hype wasn’t just the homecoming with a chip on his shoulder. It was highlighted with College Game Day in town, playing in primetime, and in front of a hostile crowd of 84,701 loud fans.
Heuple is known as an offensive guru, but let’s applaud that he just went to his alma mater and won with defense. A 25-15 victory against a great defense in the SEC is tough. However, Tennessee’s defense is elite. The defense was so good, they forced #15 Sooners to change QB’s right before halftime. A defense that went 19 straight quarters without giving up a touchdown is one of the most impressive accomplishments on Heuple’s resume. The hype is real for UT on both sides of the ball.
Oklahoma
The last time the #15 Oklahoma Sooners won a National Championship was in 2000. Their QB was Josh Heupel. Heupel was also the College Football Player of the Year, First Consensus All-American QB, and BIG12 Offensive Player of the Year. He was then hired in 2006 as the QB coach and later became the OC in 2010. He was fired in 2014 following an 8–5 season capped by a 40–6 Russell Athletic Bowl loss to Clemson in 2014. At that time, the Defensive Coordinator for Clemson was the now current OU Head Coach, Brent Venables. Venables was also the DC at OU when Heupel was the QB. It was well known that Venables was not a fan of Heuple calling him “frail and pasty” at the time.
You can read more about the history of Heupel and OU here: https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/41290515/tennessee-college-football-coach-josh-heupel-comes-home-oklahoma
Homecoming
The Heupel homecoming was more of an emotional return. This was his first time returning to Norman since being fired in 2014 and facing the coach who didn’t, at first, support him as a player and then later losing to him in a bowl game that would get Heupel fired.
Heupel’s mother passed away in May. Heupel said “she was really looking forward to this game. She has a lot of friends across the state. It was a home game for a lot of my family”.
“I’ll have some flashbacks to a lot of great experiences that I had there in Norman, Oklahoma. I’m sure by the time the ball is tee’d up, I’ll feel that we’re not in a friendly confine and it’ll be time to go compete.” Said Heupel on his homecoming return to his alma mater.
Winning
Coach Heupel has completely changed the culture at the University of Tennessee. For the first time #6 Vols have won on the road against a top 15 team since 2006 (Georgia). With the win over OU, the Vols now have three wins against ranked SEC teams on the road in four seasons under Josh Heupel. The Vols only had three road wins against ranked SEC opponents in 15 seasons from 2006-2020. (Thank you, @Mr_Rutherford X/Twitter.)
The Vols are now 4-0 for the second time in Coach Heupel’s four seasons at Tennessee. Since 2004, the last 4-0 start was 2016. Under Heupel, Tennessee is 29-1 when leading at halftime.
It Just Means More
In a postgame interview Heupel said he didn’t make this week about him, but his players knew how much this game meant to him. Seeing QB Nico Iamaleava give Coach Heupel the game ball at the end of game just shows why it just means more in the SEC.
It was a full circle moment for Coach Heupel after the win. An emotional Heupel told ESPN’s Holly Rowe in the postgame interview “I know my Mom’s watching up top. This is the next step for this football team. It’s tough to win on the road. Go Big Orange”.
This was also Oklahoma’s first SEC game since joining the conference this year. Welcome to the SEC, Oklahoma. The hype is real and it just means more.
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