OU football coach Brent Venables ‘proud’ of Tennessee’s Josh Heupel
OU football coach Brent Venables said he was “proud” of Tennessee’s Josh Heupel’s accomplishments following the Vols’ 25-15 win over the Sooners on Sept. 21.
- Who is this new Josh Heupel and what has he done with Turbo Heup? Whoever he is, he is a better trainer than Mister Warp Speed.
- Tennessee found a new way to win and beat Oklahoma with its defense.
- Oklahoma’s offense appears chaotic and cannot cope with the Vols’ disruptive defense.
NORMAN, Okla. – Josh Heupel wouldn’t have won a game like this earlier in his career. Maybe he didn’t have the defense he needed, but there’s more to it than that.
I think Heupel was just a little too focused on points, stats, yards and pace to let off the gas, avoid unnecessary chances and trust that his defense would take care of its own thing.
I always said that Heupel would rather lose 51:50 than win 21:20 – and I was only half joking.
I don’t say that anymore, not since Heupel showed he will win no matter what it takes.
In Heupel’s first six seasons as coach at UCF and then Tennessee, he won only once when his team scored fewer than 30 points.
Now he has two such victories after No. 7 Tennessee crushed No. 13 Oklahoma 25-15 on Saturday at Palace on the Prairie.
“You can see that our game plan changed in the second half in terms of possession and time,” said Heupel. “It was probably different than ever before in my career.”
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Who is this man and what did he do with Turbo Heup?
Whoever he is, he is an excellent trainer for Mister Warp Speed.
The Vols made 11 tackles for loss, upset two Oklahoma quarterbacks and destroyed any hope of a Sooners running game.
“If you really want to play high-class football, you have to have a high-class defense,” Heupel said.
Heupel’s players were desperate to win this game for their coach, the former Sooners star quarterback who won a national championship here as a player before Bob Stoops fired him as an assistant coach in 2015.
Tennessee belted out Luke Combs’ hit “Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma” in the locker room after the win.
There is nothing wrong with that in Oklahoma these days.
At this point, we should view Tennessee’s defensive performance with a little skepticism, because OU’s offense is undeniably a mess.
The Vols (4-0) have not faced a competent offense yet, so we’ll take another look at that defense after Tennessee plays Georgia and Alabama later this season.
Still, it didn’t take an elite opponent to tear apart some of Heupel’s previous defenses. An average South Carolina team annihilated Tennessee two years ago for 507 yards and 63 points. Earlier that same season, a below-average Florida team blasted Tennessee for 594 yards.
And Purdue gave Tennessee 627 yards in a bowl triumph at the end of Heupel’s first season.
Heupel’s defensive setup is like Shaq learning to shoot a free throw. How are you going to stop him now?
Surely poor Oklahoma couldn’t stop him.
Texas has built an offensive line that is ready for the SEC. Oklahoma has not, and redshirt freshman quarterback Jackson Arnold looks lost behind this weak unit.
Heupel revealed his strategy on Tennessee’s first possession. He sent the punt team onto the field when he was facing a fourth-and-2 attempt at Oklahoma’s 42-yard line.
If that doesn’t ring a bell, consider that in Heupel’s first two seasons at Tennessee, the Vols ranked in the top 20 in the nation in fourth down attempts. I don’t have an analytics cheat sheet handy, but I think it probably says “go” on fourth-and-2 from the opponent’s 42-yard line.
But what these fancy analyses couldn’t predict was that it was only a matter of time before Arnold made a mistake and allowed Tennessee to score a point.
When Arnold threw an interception in the first quarter—one of his three turnovers—the Vols turned the mistake into points.
Nico Iamaleava made just enough long throws to give Tennessee a small lead, and from there the defense took over.
Heupel always turned up his nose at time of possession. His first three Vols teams were either last or next to last in the national rankings in time of possession. Each of those teams averaged less than 25.5 minutes of possession per game.
On Saturday, the Vols held possession for nearly 36 minutes, with Heupel placing more emphasis on possession than speed.
He didn’t turn down points either. Instead of attempting a fourth-and-one in the fourth quarter, Heupel opted for a short field goal and a 16-point lead.
Clever.
Heupel hasn’t given up his calling card, but Tennessee didn’t need speed to beat Oklahoma. The Vols’ defense becoming Heupel’s trump card showed his development as a coach.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter. @btoppmeyer.
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