Oklahoma fans marked Josh Heupel’s return to Oklahoma Memorial Stadium with a standing ovation before Saturday night’s game against Tennessee. Heupel was shown on the video board, along with a graphic listing Heupel his accomplishments during his playing career with the Sooners.

The graphic listed Heupel as a 2000 national champion, the college football player of the year, OU’s first consensus All-American quarterback and the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year.

Heupel, who spent nine years coaching at Oklahoma after his playing career, tapped his chest to acknowledge the fans and the moment before his team left the field.

Heupel starred at Oklahoma as a transfer quarterback in 1999 and 2000, taking a Sooner program that had won just 12 games over the three previous seasons to a 7-5 record in his first year, then to a BCS national championship in 2000 after a perfect 13-0 season.   

He coached for Bob Stoops at Oklahoma for nine years, too, going from a graduate assistant to co-offensive coordinator, before being fired after the 2014 season.

“I’ll have some flashbacks to a lot of great experiences that I had there in Norman, Oklahoma,” Heupel told ESPN this week. “I’m sure by the time the ball is tee’d up, I’ll feel that we’re not in a friendly confine and it’ll be time to go compete.”

No. 6 Tennessee at No. 15 Oklahoma, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC

It just so happened that the SEC sent No. 6 Tennessee (3-0) to No. 15 Oklahoma (3-0) to open league play, with the Sooners making their debut in the conference against Heupel. The game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time start on ABC.

“It will be unique,” Heupel said during his weekly press conference on Monday. “I have teammates and friends back there. They hit me up a little bit early. They were starting last week already. It will be unique going back into that stadium. 

“It’s going to be a (different) viewpoint. I am not sure I spent a day on the opposing sideline inside the stadium — not even for scrimmage. It will be different. But it is one that I am really looking forward to.”

Heupel joked on Monday when asked about the hostile environment his team could be walking into, with redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava making his first career start in a true road game.

“Should be a great crowd,” Heupel said. “It’s a passionate fan base. I am expecting them to be extremely quiet for us out of respect for me and to the program, too.”

‘Coach Heupel … he doesn’t bring it up to make it about him’

Tennessee players on Tuesday said Heupel had ignored the storyline.

“I haven’t heard anyone say, ‘Let’s go get this for coach,” Tennessee senior defensive tackle Omari Thomas said on Tuesday. “Because Coach Heupel, the way he approaches it, he doesn’t bring it up to make it about him. So no one is really thinking about it, like let’s go win this for Coach Heup, things like that.”

Instead, he kept talk about the only thing he ever talks about.

“He’s just always continuing to push us to be part of Tennessee, push Tennessee, push the Power T,” Thomas said. “That’s what we’re playing for. We’re playing for the Power T. 

“We know the Power T is going to be around long after us. We’re building a legacy for long after we’re gone. So people can say what these guys, the ’24 team, did.”

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