Forgotten moment from Josh Heupel's first season goes viral ahead of Tennessee Vols' game against Oklahoma Sooners

A clip from Josh Heupel's first season as the head coach of the Tennessee Vols went semi-viral this week ahead of UT's game against the Oklahoma Sooners.

In 2021, Heupel led the Vols to a 45-42 win in Lexington against the Kentucky Wildcats.

As the clock hit 0:00, Vols defensive backs coach Willie Martinez, who was an assistant coach alongside Heupel at Oklahoma in 2011 and 2012, gave Heupel a lengthy embrace.

Here's the moment.

The theory here is that Martinez knew how much that game meant to Heupel after getting fired by Bob Stoops, the brother of Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops, seven years earlier.

Essentially, it appears that it meant a lot for Heupel to beat a member of the Stoops family.

Maybe that was the case. Maybe it wasn't. No one but Martinez and Heupel knows for sure. But it would make sense. It wasn't Heupel's first SEC road win (that came the previous month against Missouri). And that win didn't get the Vols to bowl eligibility. Why else would it be so meaningful?

Heupel will never admit it publicly, but you just know deep down he badly wants to make a statement against Oklahoma this weekend. And not because he has any ill-will toward his alma mater -- that's clearly not the case. But just so he can show Bob Stoops in person that he made a name for himself without wearing an OU logo.

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