Hall of Fame? Why Josh Heupel had media laughing after reporter's slip of tongue | Toppmeyer

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. – Josh Heupel got (very unofficially) inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Wednesday.

Heupel spoke with reporters during a break in the second day of the SEC’s spring meetings. In between Heupel’s answers on some pretty heavy, off-the-field topics about the direction of college football, an Oklahoma-based reporter congratulated Heupel on his Hall of Fame induction.

Just one problem with that.

Heupel’s not in the Hall of Fame.

He’s been on the ballot, along with 77 other former players last year, but Heupel did not earn selection to the 2024 class.

“I’m not in the Hall of Fame, but I appreciate that,” Heupel, Tennessee's coach, said with a grin in response to the reporter who congratulated him. “For everybody here, if we can get that done, that would be great.”

Heupel normally is pretty dry and businesslike in his interactions with the media, but his humorous response to the reporter’s slip of tongue drew laughs from the assembled sportswriters.

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Heupel’s résumé makes him a worthy Hall of Fame candidate, at least. He finished as the 2000 Heisman Trophy runner-up and led Oklahoma to the national championship that season.

Heupel took a circuitous route to Sooner stardom. He enjoyed a standout career as Aberdeen Central’s quarterback in South Dakota, but FBS offers didn’t materialize out of high school.

“I was a left-handed quarterback from the middle of nowhere, in some respects,” Heupel told me in 2021. “At that time, WAC schools, I was a second or third choice at BYU or Wyoming.

“I was set on an official visit to the University of Houston in early January, and they ended up getting a commitment from somebody else. So, that's just how the recruiting kind of fell for me.”

He signed with Weber State, an FCS program, and spent three seasons there before transferring to play one season at Snow College.

Then, Heupel got his big break.

Mike Leach was Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator under Bob Stoops, and Leach recruited Heupel to be OU’s transfer quarterback and the trigger man for Leach’s Air Raid offense.

Heupel appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot as a Sooner, but he’ll return to Norman with the Vols in September, when Tennessee plays Oklahoma in the Sooners’ first season as an SEC member.

“It will be unique to go back and play inside that stadium, being on the other sideline,” Heupel said.

In two seasons with the Sooners, Heupel passed for 6,852 yards, and Oklahoma finished undefeated during his senior season. That 2000 season remains OU’s last national championship team.

Are those the achievements of a college Hall of Famer?

One reporter from Oklahoma certainly thinks so, anyway.

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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