Bob Stoops sends strong message about Josh Heupel and Brent Venables ahead of Tennessee Vols vs Oklahoma Sooners

Bob Stoops says he isn't doing interviews this week ahead of the Tennessee Vols' matchup against the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman.

The former Oklahoma head coach tweeted on Sunday night that he wants the attention to be on Josh Heupel and the Vols and on Brent Venables and the Sooners.

Heupel played for Stoops from 1999-2000. After leading the Sooners to a national championship in 2000, Heupel had a brief pro career before starting his career in coaching. He coached at Oklahoma from 2006 to 2014, when he was fired by Stoops as the program's offensive coordinator.

Venables was Stoops' defensive coordinator from 1999 to 2011. In 2022, Venables left his job as Clemson's defensive coordinator to take over as the head coach at Oklahoma after Lincoln Riley (the coach who replaced Heupel after the 2014 season) left for USC.

Stoops wished both coaches well in his note, calling Heupel the "MVP" of all his recruits, before making it clear he's rooting for Oklahoma this weekend.

"Having a strong history with both Brent Venables & Josh Huepel as players/ coaches has led to far too many requests for interviews - so I'n respectfully declining them all. All attention needs to be on those two coaches & their programs.

I have great respect for both coaches. I'm grateful for their great work here at OU; Brent as a coach here for 13 years including our national championship in 2000. Josh as our 2000 national championship QB & coach for 10 years. I've often said he is the MVP of all my recruits because he was the catalyst that got us started in '99.

I wish them both great success moving forward! But in the end I'm all- Boomer Sooner!

Heupel has maintained since back in the summer that this week's game is about the players in both programs now, and not his past at Oklahoma. I'm sure that's how the Vols are preparing this week, but there's no doubt that Heupel will have a little extra juice as he returns to Norman for the first time since he was fired.

Related: Quote from Tennessee Vols HC Josh Heupel should absolutely scare the daylights out of the rest of college football