A look at Josh Heupel and Jay Norvell’s time as co-offensive coordinators at Oklahoma
After becoming a position coach for the first time in his career at Arizona, Josh Heupel returned to Oklahoma and served as quarterbacks coach from 2006-10 for the Sooners.
Heupel would be promoted to Oklahoma’s co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach alongside Jay Norvell from 2011-14.
Heupel has since served as offensive coordinator at Utah State (2015) and Missouri (2016-17) before becoming a head coach at UCF (2018-20) and Tennessee (2021).
John Flynn served as a graduate assistant on offense for the Sooners from 2007-11. Flynn played on the offensive line for the Sooners from 2001-04 and arrived at Oklahoma one year after Heupel won the 2000 BCS national championship as a starting quarterback.
Flynn discussed Heupel and Norvell sharing offensive coordinator responsibilities under head coach Bob Stoops for three seasons.
“Heupel was the play-caller and was up top in the press box,” Flynn said on the show “Football Two-A-Days.” “Jay was on the sideline. It truly was a tandem effort. It was really neat for me to see of how co-offensive coordinators should do things. I don’t know if it was this way at a lot of different schools, from a co-offensive coordinators standpoint, Heupel called plays, but Jay had a ton of input, obviously in the game plan, had a ton of input on game day. It truly was a co-OC effort.
“Sometimes you will get into situations where you have one guy who is run-game coordinator and another guy that has a pass-game coordinator title, that is all great, but for them to have input on both run and pass, play-action screens and things like that, it is really neat for me to see that. It truly was a team effort. It has been really neat, too, and see them kind of break off and do their own thing and to see equal success.”
The entire show with Flynn can be listened to here or below.
Oklahoma co-offensive coordinators Jay Norvell, left, and Josh Heupel talk about NCAA college football Sugar Bowl prep as Oklahoma’s offensive representatives meet with the media, Monday, Dec. 30, 2013, in New Orleans. Alabama and Oklahoma face off in the Sugar Bowl, Jan. 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Alabama Media Group, Vasha Hunt)
Both coaches have experienced success with their own philosophies and concepts as head coaches since having to share co-offensive coordinator responsibilities under Stoops.
Norvell became a first year head coach at Nevada in 2017. Entering the last regular season week in 2021, Nevada is 7-4.
Heupel enters the Vols’ final regular season game in 2021 with a 6-5 record. He went 28-8 at UCF and won the 2018 American Athletic Conference championship.
