Recapping Josh Heupel’s Most Important Win of His Career

Written By Tucker Harlin

Credit: University of Tennessee Athletics

By Tucker Harlin

In every sport, the greatest teams are able to win different kinds of games.

Josh Heupel is known for his up tempo, high scoring offenses. He’d prefer to let his offense come out and score 50 points a game to win rather than having to rely on his defense to win a game due to a middling offensive performance.

The latter is what Heupel got in Tennessee’s 25-15 win over Oklahoma in Norman Saturday.

The Vols were a dealt a blow on Friday when it was announced left tackle Lance Heard would not make the trip due to a knee injury. Rough is a mild euphemism to describe the game Dayne Davis had in Heard’s place as Sooner edge rushers blew past him to strip Nico Iamaleava on two separate occasions.

Tennessee had early concerns on the ground as the Sooners were stuffing both Dylan Sampson and DeSean Bishop on the opening possessions. It was able to muster 151 yards and a Sampson touchdown near the end of the first half.

The pass attack had the same, sporadic consistency to it as the run game. Bru McCoy had a few important catches on long passes, and Dont’e Thornton’s pass was a momentum shifter to end an ugly first quarter.

All Tennessee’s offense could do in the second half was score a pair of field goals and hope for the best on the ground.

But it didn’t matter.

The mismatch between the Vols defensive front and the Sooners offensive line was something that had been eyed for months, and the Vols took full advantage.

The defense finished the night with three sacks and 11 tackles for loss, physically imposing its will for all but three possessions on the Sooners. One of these tackles for loss resulted in a safety thanks to a costly false start that backed the Sooners to their 2.

Quarterback play was also disastrous for Oklahoma.

Jackson Arnold threw a pick to Jermod McCoy on a horrible misread in the first quarter. Just one play into the possession following Oklahoma’s first strip sack, Arnold fumbled the ball right back to Tennessee on inside the Vols’ 5-yard line.

Later in the second quarter, Arnold was pressured and threw a backwards pass to a receiver that the Vols recovered, leading Brent Venables to pull Arnold in favor of true freshman Michael Hawkins Jr.

Hawkins showed some promise with what he was given, but the damage was done by the Tennessee defense.

There’s a nasty streak the Vols’ defense plays with, something we haven’t seen in any of Heupel’s previous three years in Knoxville.

The biggest question mark before the season began was the strength of the secondary, but so far it has played with same tenacity and ferocity we knew the defensive line was capable of, making the Sooners feel every hit. It’s almost like this game was personal for them.

Oh wait, it WAS personal to Tennessee.

Josh Heupel was run out of his alma mater, the place where he won a national title as a player, by his former coach. The place that lit the fire under him as a coach.

It meant something to him, and this video from the locker room says it all.

Not only did Josh Heupel beat his alma mater, but he’s dispelled a narrative of failure on the road.

Previously, Heupel’s only road wins at night in the SEC were against Kentucky and Vanderbilt; he was fortunate to catch LSU and Missouri for early kicks, and he dealt with an inferior Pittsburgh environment in 2022.

But the Vols’ trip to Oklahoma was the marquee game of the week across the country. Couple that with all the emotions that had to have been swirling around before kickoff and Heupel has his most meaningful win in his coaching career.

Tucker Harlin
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