Mike Leach addresses the similarities between his offense and the offense of his former quarterback, Josh Heupel

Josh Heupel has taken a page or two out of Mike Leach’s playbook. Now the coach at Tennessee, Heupel played quarterback under Leach, the Mississippi State coach, at Oklahoma in 1999 when Leach was the Sooners’ offensive coordinator.

With the Volunteers coming off of a 52-49 win against Alabama this past week, by far their biggest since Heupel took over last year, Leach was asked Monday about the similarities between their offenses. That led to a lighthearted jab from the Bulldogs coach regarding Heupel’s ability to run one play compared to that of Volunteers signal caller Hendon Hooker.

“He’s definitely got some things that look familiar,” Leach said. “I can think of a play in particular that we ran back in the day. He’s got his quarterback running that play better than he ran it. So, yeah.”

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Hooker was impressive in Tennessee’s win this past week, throwing for five touchdowns. With 1,817 yards passing, 287 yards rushing and 18 total scores this season, he currently has the second-best odds to win the Heisman Trophy.

Heupel also had quite the college playing career. After Mike Leach left Oklahoma to become the head coach at Texas Tech in 2000, Josh Heupel led the Sooners to a national title the very next season. He was also the Heisman runner up that year, and ended his two seasons in Norman with 7,066 yards passing, 50 touchdowns.

Now, he is hoping to find similar success at the coaching level.

Heupel has the Volunteers off to a 6-0 start for the first time since 1998, when they went undefeated on their way to claiming the national championship. His offense has been among the most efficient in the country, as they lead all teams with 551 yards per game and are second with 47.7 points per game. Meanwhile, Leach has Mississippi State at eighth in the nation with 334.6 passing yards per contest.

With that kind of production and its big wins, there is no doubt that Tennessee is firmly in the Playoff conversation. The Volunteers will look to keep rolling when they face Tennessee-Martin at noon ET on Saturday in Knoxville.