Tennessee football fans, stop worrying about Josh Heupel leaving for Oklahoma | Toppmeyer

Tennessee fans, you can relax. Josh Heupel isn’t Oklahoma bound. Unlike 23 years ago, the Sooners don’t require Heupel’s services.

Oklahoma is the toast of college football after upsetting Texas 34-30 on Saturday. A year ago, Josh Heupel and his Vols were receiving those toasts, and I heard from no shortage of UT fans who worried Heupel might cast a desiring eye on his alma mater.

I found such a reunion unlikely, but I understood Tennessee fans’ concern.

It had become clear by this time last year – and that’s before Tennessee beat Alabama – that Heupel was UT’s most promising coach dating to at least Lane Kiffin. And Kiffin spurned Tennessee, literally under the cover of darkness, after one season for his “dream job.”

This time last fall, Oklahoma’s schooner was running on flats. An embarrassing blowout to Texas applied some microwaved heat to new coach Brent Venables.

Would Heupel fancy himself savior to the school where he elevated from junior college quarterback to Heisman Trophy runner-up and became a national champion?

Heupel’s Oklahoma connections extend beyond football. His sister is married to Dan Boren, a former Oklahoma politician. Boren’s dad, David, is Oklahoma’s former governor. David Boren was OU’s president during Heupel’s playing career.

Still, I didn’t think Heupel had his bags packed for Norman. Sooners fans hold Heupel in high esteem, and I suspect the feeling is mutual, but I see no OU logo tattooed onto the biceps of this South Dakota native. Heupel’s current job is a good one. He can qualify the Vols for an expanded College Football Playoff. He parlayed Tennessee’s 11-win 2022 season into a fat raise. Tennessee’s NIL efforts are humming.

Plus, I doubt Heupel would relish coaching within the shadow Bob Stoops casts over OU’s program. Heupel played for Stoops, then worked for him, but their relationship fissured after Stoops fired Heupel while needing a fall guy for OU’s disappointing 2014 season.

Feels like '98? How about, feels like '00?

Stoops is OU’s all-time winningest coach, and he still wields clout in retirement. Lincoln Riley and Venables, the two coaches to come after Stoops, hailed from Stoops’ tree.

After Riley pulled a Kiffin and became a turncoat, OU hired a guy whose Stoops ties run so deep he’s considered akin to family.

“He’s the perfect guy to get us to the next level,” Stoops said of Venables after his hire.

Took a minute, but Venables’ No. 7 Sooners (6-0) are punching up to their weight class.

Venables was an assistant on the 2000 national championship team that Heupel quarterbacked and Stoops coached. If Sooners fans once questioned Venables, he’s regained their favor.

Around Tennessee, “It feels like ’98,” is something of a catchphrase. For years, it was uttered as gallows humor while Tennessee wandered through disappointing seasons and failed coaches. Last year, that old phrase resurfaced with pride and gusto and with the tongue removed from the cheek. Tennessee enjoyed its best season in more than two decades.

Now, the question in Oklahoma is whether this feels like 2000?

Those Sooners went from preseason No. 19 to undefeated national champions, with their left-handed transfer quarterback slinging his way to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York, where Heupel finished second to Chris Weinke.

These Sooners (preseason No. 20) are led by another transfer quarterback generating midseason Heisman buzz.

From Josh Heupel to Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma's lefty quarterbacks

Heupel’s college playing career started at the far-flung outposts of Weber State and Snow College before he hit it off with Stoops’ then-offensive coordinator, Mike Leach, and transferred to the program where he’d become a superstar.

Now, another left-handed transfer carries the torch.

Yes, like Heupel, Gabriel is a lefty. Like Heupel, he’s from a state not considered a football factory. (Gabriel is a Hawaii native.) And like Heupel, Gabriel’s career didn’t start at a blueblood. He played three seasons at UCF, including two for Heupel before Heupel left the Knights for Tennessee.

Gabriel directed a couple of veiled barbs at Heupel after his exit.

“No goodbye? Not even a phone call? Crazyyyy,” he wrote on social media after Heupel’s departure.

Later, Gabriel told 247Sports that Heupel’s offense “felt uneasy,” and he praised UCF’s transition to Gus Malzahn. In that same 247Sports interview, Gabriel complimented Malzahn’s scheme after describing Heupel’s as “simple” but “rushed.”

I didn’t make much of those comments. A coach’s exit resulting in hurt feelings isn’t unusual. In fact, Missouri players made similar remarks after Heupel left his offensive coordinator post there to become UCF’s coach.

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At Oklahoma, Gabriel reunited with Jeff Lebby, who worked under Heupel at UCF. Heupel and Lebby subscribe to a lot of the same space-and-pace principles. Gabriel stars Lebby's show.

Tennessee didn’t play last Saturday. Perfect chance for Heupel to watch the Red River Rivalry, but Heupel said he didn’t see much of the game, except for the end.

“I saw the last drive,” Heupel said. “Great job by Dillon and that offensive unit.”

For most of OU-Texas, though, Heupel said he was watching a different game. He didn’t specify which, but Missouri hosted LSU during the same time as Red River. The Vols will play Missouri next month.

While Oklahoma sprints forward with Venables and Gabriel, Heupel shows no wandering eye.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee football's Josh Heupel no longer needed as Oklahoma's savior