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Did Josh Heupel win a national championship at Oklahoma? Vols coach led Sooners from 1999-2000
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- Did Josh Heupel win a national championship at Oklahoma? Vols coach led Sooners from 1999-2000
Before Josh Heupel rebuilt Tennessee football back into a top 10 ranked team, he was a starting quarterback at one of the SEC's new premier programs.
Heupel, who played at Oklahoma from 1999-2000 after transferring from JUCO Snow College, was the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2000. He was a sixth-round pick in the 2001 NFL Draft, never making a pro appearance before starting his coaching career as a graduate assistant at OU in 2003.
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He eventually worked his way to co-offensive coordinator and play caller at Oklahoma before being fired in 2015 after the Sooners finished 8-5 in the 2014 season, which was Bob Stoops' worst record at Oklahoma outside of his inaugural season in 1999.
The firing has tainted part of Heupel's Oklahoma legacy, and it's certainly going to contribute to Tennessee's matchup against the Sooners on Saturday, which will mark Heupel's first game in Norman since 2014.
Here's a look back at Heupel's college career at Oklahoma, including the 2000 National Championship win:
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Did Josh Heupel win a national championship at Oklahoma?
Heupel won the 2000 National Championship, which was Oklahoma's last football championship as a program.
The left-hander passer was in his second season as the Sooners starter after transferring from Snow College in Utah. Heupel transferred to the junior college after spending his first three seasons at Weber State, redshirting as a freshman.
Heupel completed 25 of 39 passes for 214 yards with no touchdowns and an interception in the game, which saw Oklahoma best Florida State 13-2 at the Orange Bowl. He outdueled Chris Weinke – the Heisman Trophy winner that season – who was 25 of 51 passing for 274 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.
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The Heisman runner-up to Weinke finished the season 280 of 433 passing (64.7%) for 3,392 yards with 20 touchdowns to 14 interceptions, also rushing for seven scores.
Heupel has been referred to as Oklahoma's most important piece to bringing the program back to prominence after the 1990s, which saw the program fall off a cliff in terms of historical achievement. Then-Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops echoed that sentiment in a statement before the Sooners' game against Tennessee on Saturday.
"I've often said he is the MVP of all my recruits because he was the catalyst that got us started in '99," Stoops wrote Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Josh Heupel college stats
Here are Heupel's year-by-year college stats at Oklahoma:
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1999:310 of 500 passing (62%) for 3,460 yards with 30 touchdowns to 15 interceptions
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2000:280 of 433 passing (64.7%) for 3,392 yards with 20 touchdowns to 14 interceptions
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Did Josh Heupel win a national championship at Oklahoma?
