Nick Saban dishes on challenges Josh Heupel faces in return to Norman

It’s a made-for-TV storyline that’s dominating headlines this week in college football: Josh Heupel, who quarterbacked Oklahoma to a national championship in 2000 but was ultimately fired as the Sooners’ co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach after the 2014 season, is now making his return to Norman as the head coach of an undefeated and surging Tennessee team.

Heupel’s No. 6 Volunteers are squaring off against No. 15 Oklahoma, which is led by Brent Venables, who, of course, was the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for the national-title-winning squad Heupel quarterbacked.

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Nick Saban joined “The Pat McAfee Show” Friday and shared his thoughts on Heupel’s return to Norman, where Heupel played two seasons, spent another as a graduate assistant and eventually served nine more on the coaching staff.

“Well, I’m sure that I’ve been in situations where I’ve been fired before and went back and played in those situations, or left and had to go back in those situations,” Saban said. “I think to you, maybe personally, there’s something there. But the No. 1 thing you want to do for your team is not let that impact your team.”

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Most notably, Saban made his first trip back to Baton Rouge as Alabama’s head coach in 2008, five years removed from leading LSU to a national title. Saban didn’t receive a warm welcome, but his Crimson Tide pulled out a 27-21 win in overtime, thanks to a trio of interceptions from safety Rashad Johnson and a game-winning, quarterback sneak touchdown from John Parker Wilson. That win gave Alabama its first SEC West division title since 1999.

“You want your team to stay focused on what they need to do to play well in the game and not worry about those kind of external factors in terms of their emotions,” Saban said.

It sounds like Heupel is following the blueprint Saban laid out Friday.

“I haven’t heard anyone say, ‘Let’s go get this for coach,’” Tennessee senior defensive tackle Omari Thomas said on Tuesday. “Because Coach Heupel, the way he approaches it, he doesn’t bring it up to make it about him.

“So no one really is even thinking about it, like, ‘Let’s go win this for Coach Heup,’ things like that. He’s just always continuing to push us to be part of Tennessee, push Tennessee, push the ‘Power T.’ And that’s what we playing for. We playing for the ‘Power T.'”