[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz7cqqgxy50qwt player_id=none image=https://soonerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
Two former Oklahoma Sooners assistants shared the spotlight on Monday evening as Josh Heupel and Shane Beamer won the Steve Spurrier Award for first-year head coaches.
Tennessee’s Josh Heupel & South Carolina’s Shane Beamer named co-winners of the FWAA’s Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach Award
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) January 18, 2022
Heupel, the former national championship-winning quarterback and offensive coordinator for the Oklahoma Sooners, took over a Tennessee team in disarray after the Jeremy Pruitt era ended with some scandal. The Volunteers rebounded from a 3-7 season to go 7-6 in Heupel’s first year at the helm in Knoxville.
The Volunteers dropped a classic game to the Purdue Boilermakers in the Music City Bowl, but that doesn’t take anything away from a fantastic season for Heupel and Tennessee.
Shane Beamer was on staff with the Oklahoma Sooners from 2018 to 2021 and left to take over the South Carolina Gamecocks job. In his first year, Beamer helped lead the Gamecocks to a 7-6 record (their first winning season since 2018) and a win in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
Because of the success of Heupel and Beamer, each coach was connected to the Oklahoma Sooners head coaching job, even if it was only a brief moment.
The Sooners’ new head coach Brent Venables will be in contention for the first-year head coach award as he takes over at Oklahoma. Though he takes over a team that hasn’t had a losing record since 1998, he’ll have his work cut out for him to try and get the Sooners back into the Big 12 title picture and national championship contention.
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions.
[listicle id=53235]