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Josh Heupel, coaches throughout the sport show support for Mike Leach

Dan Harralson
·6 min read
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Mike Leach was hired as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma in 1999.

After being hired by the Sooners, Leach set out to find a quarterback who could come in and run his Air Raid offense.

He narrowed the search to a pair of JUCO signal-callers: Josh Heupel from Snow College and Sean Stein of Long Beach City College.

Leach settled on Heupel, who threw for 3,460 yards and 30 touchdowns in 1999. Leach left Oklahoma following the 1999 season to become Texas Tech’s head coach. Heupel guided Oklahoma to the BCS national championship in 2000.

Leach previously discussed why he settled on Heupel to be his quarterback and run the Air Raid offense at Oklahoma.

“Josh had thrown a lot of balls,” Leach told Vols Wire in April 2021. “Josh was really accurate. Really accurate and really smart. Really knows football, a coach’s kid. I liked all of those things, and we had to do it as fast as we could. Josh came and spent a couple of days with me, and we didn’t have furniture yet because we were just moving into the Switzer Center there, they just built it. We sat on the floor watching film after film, that was when it was VHS still and talked offense.

“I thought Josh always had a great command of the field, a great knowledge of the game. The other thing was he was really accurate. He did not have a strong arm, but he was real accurate.”

Leach was hospitalized Sunday for a personal health issue, according to Mississippi State.

Leach’s health issue led to him being transferred to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi.

Heupel and other coaches throughout the sport voiced their support for Leach on social media and is listed below.

Story originally appeared on Vols Wire