Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel has a checkered history with the University of Oklahoma. On one hand, it's his alma mater, and Heupel has the distinction of being the last Sooners quarterback to lead the school to a National Title. On the other hand, after serving as Oklahoma's offensive coordinator for four seasons, Heupel was let go by the university in January 2015, leaving a scar up until this week had yet to fully heal.

Josh Heupel said all of the right things heading into this game against Oklahoma, and continued to do so after the Vols exited with a 25-15 win over the 15th-ranked Sooners. But once the dust had settled, Heupel was willing to concede that this win meant a little bit more.

“Walking off that field with the win felt pretty good,” Heupel said after the game, according Grant Ramey of On3. Beyond that, at least until he spoke with his team in a more private setting after the game, Heupel continued to focus on the task at hand for the Tennessee Volunteers.

“We’ve got a good football team, got high expectations. They continue to compete extremely hard every day to grow to become better. This was our first road test in the league. Tonight was about this ’24 football team and (I’m) really proud of how they performed.”

The Volunteers were held to a season-low 25 points on Saturday night after scoring 63 points per game in their first three contests of the season. But the test, a primetime road matchup with an Oklahoma team whose strength will be its defense, makes it understandable that the Vols offense hit a few bumps in the road. Even still, Nico Iamaleava and the Vols offense did just enough, knowing how much this game meant to their coach.

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“Yeah. I knew it was Coach Heup coming back to his original home. He went to college here. He coached here. I know it meant a lot to him,” Iamaleava said after the game, per Wes Rucker of 247 Sports. “He didn't show it as much during the week, but we know what it meant to him, and what it meant to us.”

Once he was back in the locker room, with tears in his eyes, Josh Heupel thanked the Volunteers for putting in the extra effort to ensure that they left Norman with a win.

After such an emotional win, Tennessee will benefit from a bye week next Saturday before returning to the field on October 5th in a tricky road matchup with the Arkansas Razorbacks.