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, just after a 40-6 loss to Clemson in the Russell Athletic Bowl, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops called longtime assistant Cale Gundy. Stoops asked Gundy if he could meet him at Bison Witches in downtown Norman. There, Stoops told Gundy he was going to fire his offensive coordinator, Josh Heupel.

The Sooners had just suffered through their worst season under Stoops. TCU and Kansas State upset them. Baylor blew them out. And Oklahoma State, propelled by Tyreek Hill’s punt return, rallied to win a Bedlam overtime thriller.

Then, in the bowl game, Brent Venables’ Clemson defense shut down the Sooners in a humiliating defeat.

“Bob had to make a change,” Gundy recalled. “I don’t know, it was tough. … it wasn’t just struggles on the offensive side. But Bob had to make that decision. An unbelievably tough call.”

Heupel was — and remains — OU royalty. In 2000, he quarterbacked the Sooners to their seventh national championship; OU hasn’t won a title since.

Heupel later proved to be a valued assistant during the Sooners’ prolific run through the 2000s. He mentored Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks Jason White and Sam Bradford. In 2011, Heupel became offensive coordinator, and over the next four seasons, OU averaged 475 yards per game, 10th best in college football during that span.

But in 2014, Stoops realized that his Sooners needed a spark. And so, shortly after meeting Gundy, Stoops fired Heupel, later calling it the “worst day” in his 18 years as OU’s coach.

“I have this deep appreciation for Josh, certainly first and foremost as a player,” said Venables, OU’s coach now and its co-defensive coordinator when Heupel starred for the Sooners. “I’ve always looked back and said, ‘Man, we couldn’t have done it without Heupel.’ His leadership, what he was able to do from a transformation standpoint to our locker room, the guts and the toughness that he played through. … I’ve always held him up here on this pedestal, from a player’s standpoint.”

Saturday, for the first time since the firing, Heupel returns to the stadium where he became a Sooners legend. In his fourth season at Tennessee, Heupel brings the surging sixth-ranked Volunteers to Norman for OU’s long-anticipated first conference game as a member of the SEC.

Heupel has downplayed the significance of the reunion. He has also avoided opening up about the firing. Heupel said Monday that he was “tremendously grateful” for the opportunity OU gave him, both as a quarterback and a coach.

“I wouldn’t be here,” he said, “if I didn’t have all those experiences.”

Those close to Heupel, however, know the firing hurt.

“I hope enough time [has gone by] that he still understands how much he means to this state, how much he means to the program,” Bradford said. “I hope that he gets a warm reception. I hope that he’s able to a

ppreciate that and take that in before the game gets going.”

HEUPEL ARRIVED IN Norman in 1999, months after Stoops took over a struggling OU program that had reached a nadir. Since the end of World War II, the Sooners had boasted more victories (443) than any other school. But OU hadn’t enjoyed a winning season since 1993.

Stoops hired Air Raid guru Mike Leach from Kentucky to call plays. Immediately, Leach went searching for a quarterback. He ended up targeting an unknown left-handed junior college transfer from Snow College in Utah.

“I have no idea how Leach found Josh Heupel,” said Tulsa offensive coordinator Steve Spurrier Jr., son of the legendary Florida coach and part of Stoops’ first OU staff. “But one of the really important variables for Leach when he recruited quarterbacks was, what kind of completion percentage did they have? He doesn’t have to hit deep balls. Doesn’t have to have a really strong arm. But he has to throw completions. That was always crucial in his offense. And that was always crucial in his evaluation of quarterbacks.”

Heupel didn’t have the rocket arm coveted by NFL scouts or other blue-blood college programs. He couldn’t run much, either. But Heupel could put the ball on the money. And, as a coach’s son, he knew where to go with it, too. That first year, Heupel spent much of his free time with Leach mastering the Air Raid, an offensive scheme designed to spread the field and attack the defense with quick passes.

“Josh was a QB rat. He wasn’t into going out and partying. He was a football junkie,” Gundy said. “That was perfect for Mike Leach, because obviously Mike liked to stay up late at night.”

That first season, for a program best known for Barry Switzer’s wishbone running attack, Heupel led all Power 5 quarterbacks with 310 completions, as Stoops’ Sooners showed promise.

“We had the players. We just had to get the right coaches, structure, discipline. … and the right quarterback,” said Rocky Calmus, an All-America linebacker for the Sooners then. “Josh would be the first to tell you he didn’t have the strongest arm, but he was accurate. He read it and he could put it where it needed to be.”

The Sooners were on the way up. Yet almost no one considered them national championship contenders heading into 2000. OU opened ranked 20th in the preseason polls. The night before their first preseason practice, Heupel addressed the team and told them they needed to aim higher.

“I wish somebody had recorded it. To this day, it’s the best speech I’ve ever heard,” said White, a redshirt freshman that year. “His whole point was, why not us? He kept saying it. Why can’t we win the Big 12? Why can’t we win a national championship?”

Gundy and Spurrier stood at the back of the room. When Heupel uttered “national championship,” they looked at each other in disbelief.

“We were not prepared for that. But Josh Heupel was,” Gundy said. “The belief that Josh Heupel had and what he portrayed while he was here got this whole team going. The belief that we could be better than everybody, that we could win every game — that came from Josh Heupel.”

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