An OU flag is flown during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Baylor Bears at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022. Nathan Fish, The Oklahoman
When Bob Stoops was hired as Oklahoma’s head coach prior to the 1999 season, one thing was for sure. The Sooners had a defensive expert at the wheel and were going to be tough to score on, regardless of the opponent.
But, one of the most important hirings a defensive-minded head coach can make is choosing an offensive coordinator. It’s not enough to be good on one side of the ball, you’ve got to be good across the board to win championships. One of the things that made OU so good in the Stoops era was that they typically had the right offensive coordinator.
Fast forward to the present day, and Oklahoma once again has a defensive-minded head coach. Brent Venables is 19-10 in his 29 games at the helm.
Much has been written about one of the biggest games of Venables’ time in Norman, which comes on Saturday against Tennessee. The Volunteers are lead by head coach Josh Heupel, a former star quarterback and offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.
Heupel’s return comes after he was let go by Stoops following the 2014 season, a day Stoops has called “the hardest in my time as a head coach.” But what other big names have the Sooners had at offensive coordinator? This list includes every one of them since 1999, as OU has had a defensive head coach for all but five seasons of the past quarter-century.
Mike Leach: 1999
Nov 22, 2008; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops talks with Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Mike Leach at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman. Oklahoma beat Texas Tech 65-21. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
Mike Leach only served as OU’s offensive coordinator for one season, but his impact lasted far longer than that.
Leach is the coach that brought Heupel to Norman, grabbing him as a transfer from Snow Junior College. The Sooners went 7-5 in 1999, but were building for something bigger.
One of the architects of the Air Raid, Leach was the offensive coordinator at Kentucky for two seasons before Stoops brought him to OU. He mentored No. 1 overall pick Tim Couch before setting a great foundation for Heupel with the Sooners.
Leach would go on to become Texas Tech’s head coach in 2000, serving as the head coach through 2009. Under Leach, the Red Raiders enjoyed the best stretch in program history. He was Washington State’s head coach from 2012 to 2019, before serving as Mississippi State’s head coach from 2020 to 2022.
Leach mentored so many in the ways of the Air Raid offense and is one of the most beloved figures in college football history. He sadly passed away in December of 2022, but his impact on the sport will never be forgotten.
Mark Mangino: 2000-2001
Nov 10, 2007; Stillwater, OK, USA; Kansas Jayhawks head coach Mark Mangino instructs his players against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the second half at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, OK. Kansas won the game 43-28. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports
Mark Mangino served as the offensive coordinator for OU’s most recent national championship, as the Sooners climbed the highest mountain in college football in Year 2 under Stoops.
Mangino was one of the Kansas State assistant coaches (along with Venables) that Stoops brought with him to Norman in 1999. After serving as the offensive line coach under Leach for one season, Mangino took control of the offense for two seasons. Oklahoma was the undisputed king of college football in 2000 and had a complete team with a stingy defense and a Heisman trophy runner-up at quarterback.
Mangino became the head coach at Kansas in 2002 and held the position until 2009. Like Leach in Lubbock, the Jayhawks had a remarkably impressive run in Lawrence under Mangino before his departure. He was an assistant coach at both Youngstown State and Iowa State, but has been out of coaching since 2016.
Chuck Long: 2002-2005
Oct. 25, 2008; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego State Aztecs head coach Chuck Long prior to the game against the Colorado State Rams at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Chuck Long’s first season on OU’s staff was 2000, as he served as the quarterbacks coach under Mangino. He was instrumental in Heupel’s incredible season during the national championship run and was promoted to co-offensive coordinator in 2002 when Mangino left.
Long called the plays for four seasons in Norman, and, as the quarterbacks coach, developed Jason White into a Heisman Trophy winner in 2003 and a finalist for the award in 2004. In both of those seasons, Long’s offenses were excellent in helping the Sooners reach the BCS National Championship Game.
Long left following the 2005 season to become the head coach at San Diego State, where he served for three seasons. He’s had subsequent experience as the offensive coordinator at Kansas from 2010-2011 and with the St. Louis BattleHawks in the 2020 edition of the XFL. He and Stoops still have a great relationship, as the head coach of the Arlington Renegades hired him to be his co-offensive coordinator in the 2023 edition of the XFL. He was the solo OC for Stoops and the Renegades in the UFL last season and is still serving in that role today.
Kevin Wilson: 2002-2010
Sep 16, 2023; Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA; OU head coach Brent Venables and Tulsa head coach Kevin Wilson talk before a game at Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nathan J. Fish-USA TODAY Sports
Kevin Wilson was hired as a co-offensive coordinator for the Sooners in 2002 along with Long, but he didn’t call plays until 2006, when Long headed west to coach the Aztecs.
Wilson coached the offensive lines at OU for the first four years of his time in Norman, as Oklahoma reached the national title game twice and protected White from injury during his final two seasons. They also opened up holes for Adrian Peterson, who had three remarkable years as a Sooner.
Wilson took over control of the offense in 2006, and the Sooners were dangerous on that side of the ball for all five seasons that he called the plays. Wilson’s 2008 offense, led by Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford, was one of the best college football had ever seen at the time. OU scored 60-plus points five straight times, and the no-huddle attack dumbfounded defenses all over the Big 12. The Sooners won four conference titles from 2006-2010, all with Wilson at the controls of the offense.
Wilson became the head coach at Indiana in 2011, where he served until 2016. Immediately following, he spent six years as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator before taking the head coaching position at Tulsa in 2023. Though the Golden Hurricane have struggled in Wilson’s first two years at the helm, make no mistake about it, he’s one of the best minds in all of college football.
Kevin Sumlin: 2006-2007
Nov 18, 2017; Oxford, MS, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Kevin Sumlin during the first half against the Mississippi Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports
Kevin Sumlin never called plays for Oklahoma, but he served as a co-offensive coordinator with Wilson for two years. He spent a total of five years in Norman, coaching tight ends, special teams and wide receivers.
Sumlin was instrumental in the development of some of OU’s top pass-catchers like Malcolm Kelly and Juaquin Iglesias during his time as a Sooner in 2006 and 2007. In his final year at Oklahoma, the Sooners averaged 44 points per game on offense, a precursor for what was to come the next year.
His work in Norman was clearly noticed by athletic directors across the country. Sumlin left Oklahoma for the head coaching job at Houston in 2008. In 2012 he became the head coach at Texas A&M, before being fired in 2017. He spent three years as the head coach at Arizona, before coaching the USFL’s Houston Gamblers in 2022. He’s currently an assistant coach at Maryland.
Josh Heupel: 2011-2014
Sep 1, 2022; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel during the first half against the Ball State Cardinals at Neyland Stadium. Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Finally, we arrive at the man the college football world is talking about this week. Josh Heupel was the starting quarterback and runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 2000, the year Oklahoma took college football by storm and won the national championship. He returned to OU as a graduate assistant in 2004, left for a season, and then returned to coach quarterbacks at OU from 2006 to 2010 under Wilson.
Heupel mentored QBs Paul Thompson, Sam Bradford, and Landry Jones while he was an assistant, as OU consistently produced excellent offenses. After Wilson left to take the job at Indiana, Heupel was named co-offensive coordinator and called the plays.
Heupel lasted four years as OU’s offensive coordinator from 2011 to 2014, having some peaks and valleys in the role. For the first two years, the offense continued to hum under Jones, but with Trevor Knight, Blake Bell and Cody Thomas each earning multiple starts over the next two seasons, the unit began to stumble.
After a tough 2014 campaign, Stoops let Heupel go in a move that is still causing ripple effects today. Heupel was a the OC at Utah State for a year, before calling the offenses at Missouri for two seasons. He got his first chance as a head coach at UCF in 2018, and coached the Knights for three seasons.
Tennessee was in a dark place when they hired him as their head coach in 2021, and Heupel has done the work to turn the Volunteers around in the past three seasons. Now, the Vols are a top ten outfit, and they’ll roll into Norman on Saturday night looking to stay undefeated.
Jay Norvell: 2011-2014
Nevada head coach Jay Norvell leads his team onto the field to take on Hawai’i at Mackay Stadium in Reno on Oct. 16, 2021. JASON BEAN/RGJ / USA TODAY NETWORK
Like Sumlin, Jay Norvell never called the plays on offense for Oklahoma. But he was instrumental in some of the great Sooner offenses of the previous decade.
After serving as UCLA’s offensive coordinator in 2007, Stoops brought him to Norman in 2008 to be the assistant offensive coordinator and coach wide receivers under Wilson after Sumlin left. For three seasons, Oklahoma was excellent when healthy offensively, and wide receivers like Juaquin Iglesias, Manuel Johnson and Ryan Broyles were a big part of OU’s high-flying attack.
When Wilson left to coach Indiana in 2011, Norvell was promoted to co-offensive coordinator along with Heupel, but Norvell wouldn’t call the plays; instead that duty would go to Heupel. Norvell and his excellent wide receivers continued to produce at a high level, with Kenny Stills, Jalen Saunders and a young Sterling Shepard among his greatest players.
OU’s offense had good mixed in with bad over the four years that Norvell served as co-OC, but he was fired along with Heupel after the 2014 season. Bob Stoops wanted a fresh perspective on offense, and the result was two talented coordinators departing to go elsewhere.
Norvell coached at Texas for one season, and Arizona State for one season, before becoming Nevada’s head coach in 2017. He led the way there for five seasons before taking the same position at Colorado State in 2022. He’s in his third season coaching the Rams, currently holding a 9-18 record though 27 games.
Lincoln Riley: 2015-2016
Oct 7, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley watches game action against the Arizona Wildcats during the first half at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Surely you know this story. Stoops replaced Heupel and Norvell with East Carolina’s offensive coordinator, a young rising star named Lincoln Riley. He served as the offensive coordinator in Norman for the final two years of Stoops’ time as OU’s head coach, as the Sooners bounced back in a big way on the offensive side of the ball. Oklahoma made the College Football Playoff in 2015, and won the Sugar Bowl in 2016, finishing both seasons as Big 12 champions.
When Stoops stepped down and retired in the summer of 2017, Riley was named Oklahoma’s next head coach. He continued to call the plays on offense and the Sooners were excellent at lighting up the scoreboard. With Riley at the helm, the Sooners went to the playoff three straight times, captured two Heisman Trophies, and had two players taken No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft.
But, the cracks started to show. OU missed the CFP in Riley’s final two seasons, and the team declined slightly each year he was the head coach. The Sooners began to lack the toughness and physicality that were hallmarks under his predecessor.
After the 2021 regular season, Riley shocked the college football world by leaving OU to become the next head coach at USC, and he’s still there today. Stoops served in his interim for the 2021 Alamo Bowl victory and Brent Venables was hired as Oklahoma’s next head coach. Venables has been tasked with getting Oklahoma ready for the SEC, as the league comes knocking on their front door on Saturday night.
Bill Bedenbaugh: 2017-2021
Sep 18, 2021; Norman, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma Sooners offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh during the game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Bill Bedenbaugh has been Oklahoma’s offensive line coach since 2013. He served as the assistant offensive coordinator under Riley in 2016, before being promoted to co-offensive coordinator in 2017.
Bedenbaugh never called the plays during his time as co-OC, as Riley handled those duties as the head coach. However, his offensive lines were excellent in the CFP seasons, as OU was able to run and pass at will. The Sooners earned the Joe Moore award in 2018, as the best offensive line in college football.
Bedenbaugh has put multiple stars in the NFL including Creed Humphrey and first-round offensive tackles in the past two drafts in the form of Anton Harrison and Tyler Gutyon.
When Riley left in 2021, Bedenbaugh stayed in Norman. He’s coaching the offensive line under Brent Venables, and continues to be among the best in the country at his job.
Cale Gundy: 2017-2021
Cale Gundy is wrapping up his 28th season coaching football. The Alamo Bowl will be his first turn as a play caller. Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman
Cale Gundy was a quarterback at Oklahoma from 1990 to 1993, and was the best of OU’s players at the position in the decade between Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops. He was a graduate assistant in Norman before becoming an assistant at UAB for four years.
Gundy returned to when Stoops was hired in 1999, initially coaching running backs. He was one of the best position coaches on the staff for so many great moments of the Stoops era. He was an excellent recruiting coordinator for a number of years, helping bring some of the best players in college football to Owen Field. When Riley became offensive coordinator in 2015, Gundy was moved to inside wide receivers coach.
He was promoted to co-offensive coordinator along with Bedenbaugh in 2017 when Riley succeeded Stoops as the head coach at OU. Like Bedenbaugh, Gundy wasn’t OU’s play caller for those five seasons. It’s important to note that under Riley calling the plays at that time, it was a bit of a team effort beneath him offensively. Bedenbaugh and Gundy served as co-OCs, while Shane Beamer was the assistant head coach for offense for two seasons (2019-2020) while coaching tight ends and h-backs. He became South Carolina’s head coach in 2021. Outside wide receivers coach Dennis Simmons also had a large role, and was the passing game coordinator in 2021. Simmons left for USC with Riley in November of 2021.
Back to Gundy, he assumed offensive play calling duties for the 2021 Alamo Bowl after Riley’s departure and stayed in Norman to coach wide receivers for Venables in 2022. However, he resigned from his position before the 2022 season after an incident in the WR meeting room during a film session that forced Venables’ hand.
Gundy was associated with OU for a record 27 seasons over 32 years and is responsible for getting a number of the most famous players in Oklahoma history into a Sooner uniform. You can’t tell the story of that era of OU football without Cale Gundy.
Jeff Lebby: 2022-2023
Sept. 3, 2022; Norman; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Dillon Gabriel (8) and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby before the game against the UTEP Miners at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Jeff Lebby was OU’s offensive coordinator for the first two seasons of the Venables era, after playing at Oklahoma and serving as a student assistant from 2002-2006.
Lebby has made many stops in his college coaching career, but spent plenty of time at Baylor under his father-in-law Art Briles from 2008 to 2016. After Briles was fired, Lebby ended up coaching under Josh Heupel from 2018 to 2019 at UCF. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin hired him to be his offensive coordinator in 2020, and he spent two seasons there before coming back to Norman.
Lebby had his fair share of great moments in his two years calling the plays at Oklahoma. His relationship with Dillon Gabriel from their time together at UCF in 2019 helped get the QB to come to OU instead of UCLA. Gabriel improved under Lebby’s guidance and had an excellent season in 2023.
Lebby is currently in his first season as the head coach at Mississippi State, yet another name on this list who has become a head coach directly after serving as OU’s offensive coordinator.
Joe Jon Finley: 2024-present
OU tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley speaks during a media day for the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) football team in Norman, Okla., Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman
Joe Jon Finley has been on Oklahoma’s coaching staff since 2021. He spent his first year in Norman as the assistant head coach for offense and coached the tight ends and h-backs after Shane Beamer left. Finley stayed on OU’s staff when Riley bolted for USC. He’s been the tight ends coach for the last two seasons under Lebby, before Venables promoted him to co-offensive coordinator prior to this season.
Though Finley doesn’t call the plays, he’s very involved with the offensive gameplay each week, and is still coaching the tight ends. Under his watch, both Bauer Sharp and Jake Roberts have had nice starts to the 2024 season, coming in via the portal. OU’s offense has struggled so far this season, and they’ll need to continue improving after a better performance against Tulane last week.
Finley is considered an up-and-comer in the coaching world and has coached under names like Josh Heupel, Art Briles, Jimbo Fisher, Lane Kiffin and Jeff Lebby. He’s very familiar with the veer-and-shoot style of offense that the Sooners currently employ, and may help Venables and the defense this week, as he knows Heupel’s style of offense well. Anything helps, as OU looks for an advantage over the Volunteers.
Seth Littrell: 2024-present
Apr 20, 2024; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners offensive coordinator Seth Littrell before the Oklahoma Sooners spring game at Gaylord Family OK Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Oklahoma’s current offensive play caller can trace his roots to Norman all the way back to 1997. Seth Littrell was a fullback for the Sooners for four seasons and was a captain as a senior on the national championship team.
Following his playing days, Littrell made coaching stops as an assistant at Kansas, Texas Tech and Arizona, eventually becoming the offensive coordinator for the Wildcats. After his time in the desert, he was a coordinator at both Indiana and North Carolina, before becoming the head coach at North Texas.
Littrell called the plays for the Mean Green as the head coach for seven seasons from 2016 to 2022. He was fired at the end of the 2022 season, despite a winning record that year.
Littrell has worked for excellent names in the coaching industry like Mark Mangino, Mike Leach, Sonny Dykes, Kevin Wilson and Larry Fedora. After his time at North Texas, he was hired as an offensive analyst in 2023 under Jeff Lebby, before he and Finley were promoted by Brent Venables to co-OCs after Lebby’s departure.
Littrell calls the plays and coaches the quarterbacks for the Sooners this year, and has been tasked with keeping the offense at a high level and developing Jackson Arnold and his successors at the QB spot. He works alongside Finley and second-year wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator Emmett Jones to put Oklahoma in the best possible spots offensively. However, Littrell has the final say on play calls, and is the one communicating with Arnold on the in-helmet microphone that is new to college football this year.
OU’s offense has struggled so far in 2024, but they’re hoping to get a boost against Tennessee with the return from injury of some key players at multiple positions. The Sooners will have to be excellent offensively on Saturday night, if they plan on keeping up with Josh Heupel, Nico Iamaleava, and the high-flying offense of the Volunteers.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Oklahoma Sooners offensive coordinators through the years
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Publish date : 2024-09-19 06:01:00
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