Oklahoma coach Brent Venables on Josh Heupel: ‘He’s always been a winner’

From Oklahoma to Utah State, then Missouri to UCF, then finally to Tennessee. All along the way, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables never lost touch with Tennessee Football Josh Heupel .

“(He’s) a great friend,” Venables said last week during SEC Media Days in Dallas, “just really happy for him and the success that he’s had. No surprise. He’s always been a winner.”

Venables and Heupel won a national championship together at Oklahoma 24 years ago, with Heupel as the team’s All-American quarterback and Venables as the team’s second-year co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

SEC Opener: Tennessee at Oklahoma, September 21

Now Heupel, entering his fourth season as the head coach at Tennessee, will take his Vols to Oklahoma on September 21, where they’ll face Venables’ Sooners in their first game as an SEC team.

It’s just another connection for Heupel to Oklahoma, where he later coached quarterbacks and worked as co-offensive coordinator between 2006 and 2014. He went to Utah State after being fired by former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops .

Venables is 16-10 after two seasons as the new Oklahoma coach, after spending the previous 10 years as Clemson’s defensive coordinator.

“To experience my first national championship as a coach,” Venables said, “I’ve always looked back and said, man, we couldn’t have done it without Heupel.

“His leadership, what he was able to do from a transformation standpoint to our locker room, the guts and the toughness that he played through that 2000 season.”

‘No surprise, as a coach’s son, the level of success that he has had as a coach’

Heupel, a junior college transfer who spent two seasons at Oklahoma , passed for 3,460 yards and 30 touchdowns in 1999 and 3,392 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2000.

“I’ve always held him up here on this pedestal when it comes from a player’s standpoint,” Venables said.

Venables’ view of Heupel as a coach is just as lofty.

Heupel is 27-12 in three seasons at Tennessee, taking the Vols to an 11-win season in 2022. He went 28-8 over the previous three seasons at UCF.

“No surprise, as a coach’s son, the level of success that he has had as a coach,” Venables said. “I’ve stayed in touch with him pretty much every step of the way through this process. We competed on the field in 2014, and he went to Utah State and then to Central Florida and then to Tennessee.

“We’ve stayed in touch through those moments of success and some of the moments, the challenges a football season will bring you.”

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