Tennessee coach Josh Heupel avoided the emotions of returning to his alma mater. He finally opened up after the Vols took down Oklahoma on Saturday.
Heupel fielded questions, as usual, following No. 6 Tennessee’s 25-15 win over No. 15 Oklahoma on Saturday night. Then, as his postgame press conference was wrapping up, he addressed playing against the team that choose not to retain him as its co-offensive coordinator in 2014.
“I’m gonna just say something real quick,” Heupel said. “…I had a bunch of teammates that reached out to me and I just want to say thank you to all of you guys that that reached out to me. A lot of you I didn’t get back to. I will on the plane ride back, but you guys have changed my life and my family’s life forever.
“Eternally grateful for all of you. A lot of former players as well, that I should mention. The second thing is, I’ve gotten a chance to meet a lot of people that had an impact on my mom while she was here. There’s a bunch that I haven’t, but I just want to say thank you for the relationships and what you meant to her. So thank you.”
Heupel returned to Oklahoma just four months after his mother, Cynthia Lou Kelly Heupel, passed away at her home in May. With his father in attendance, Heupel hid the emotions of returning to Norman for the first time in 10 years.
Heupel led Oklahoma to a national championship in 2000 as the Sooners’ starting quarterback. He coached at the school for a decade before Sooners’ coach Bob Stoops decided to go in a different direction, replacing Heupel with Lincoln Riley, who is now the head coach at Southern California, in 2015.
Heupel isn’t a publicly emotional person. As much as the homecoming meant to him, he’d rather just focus on the game and the Vols’ dominant defense, which led the Vols to the victory against the Sooners. However, when asked about his mother specifically, Heupel admitted that the family had this game marked on their calendar when the schedule was announced in December.
“She was looking forward to this game,” Heupel said. “She’s got a lot of friends across the state that know that she was looking forward to it. So, it was a unique game to come back and have it be a road game for me and this football team, but a home game for a lot of my family.”
4 Responses
I always thought Heupel would be a great coach, and he is. He was a wonderful student of the game. I was at our last National Championship and have fond memories of Josh and his family.
AWESOME! SUPER INSPIRATIONAL. GBO VFL
I only know you from football and you got a bum rap. I have lived in Oklahoma 40+ years and now when you play against Oklahoma I am rooting for you. Congratulations on your win.
Great win for Vols,that defense isn’t just good,it’s a we got your back Nico defense. GBO