New Tennessee head football coach Josh Heupel has worked with quarterbacks for most of his coaching career. It’s the position he knows best.
Heupel, a quarterback at Oklahoma for two seasons, led the Sooners to its seventh and most recent national championship in 2000 while finishing as a consensus All-American, the AP Player of the Year, a Walter Camp Award winner and a runner up for the Heisman Trophy (beaten out by former Florida state quarterback and Tennessee quarterback coach Chris Weinke).
The journey to a national title was far and winding for Heupel. A South Dakota native, Heupel committed to Weber State in the mid ‘90s, but an injury eventually pushed him down the junior college path, playing for Snow College. In 1999, Heupel followed Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops to Norman. The Sooners won seven games that season, going to a bowl game for the first time since 1994. That year, Heupel threw for 3,460 yards, 30 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. He added five rushing touchdowns.
In 2000, Oklahoma really took off. The Sooners went undefeated, beating six ranked teams in the process, culminating with a 13-2 win against Florida State in the BCS Title game. Heupel threw for 3,606 yards that season, completing 64.6 percent of his passes. He threw 20 touchdowns and 15 interceptions, finishing third on the team in rushing touchdowns with seven.
PHOTOS: Josh Heupel
Heupel’s second place finish that season in Heisman voting put him in front of some all-time college and professional football greats: Purdue quarterback Drew Brees finished third, TCU running back LaDanian Tomlinson finished fourth and Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick finished sixth.
Heupel was drafted in the sixth round at No. 177 overall to the Miami Dolphins.