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Friday, December 13, 2002
Notebook: All that Heup
By Marc Connolly
BCSfootball.com
MIAMI -- Every media type strongly believes they'll be the one to discover the real Josh Heupel. Surely, there's something else to that quiet kid from Aberdeen, S.D., than his two-word answers, cliches, Coachspeak and that feeling he gives off that screams "I'd rather be sleeping".
Perhaps the most risque thing he's revealed all season is that he listens to both reggae and gospel music. That's playing it safe, huh?
|  | | Josh Heupel is the same shy guy off the field, says roommate Josh Norman. |
Sometimes his calm mannerisms and sentences devoid of real opinions seem intentional -- almost in defiance to the national media. But spend enough time around him and you'll see that it's not an act. He just happens to be a quiet kid with a humility about him that is rarely seen in present-day culture, says Josh Norman. Forget that he's one of Heupel's main guns in Mark Mangino's devastating aerial attack. Norman knows first hand what the left-handed Golden Boy is really like as his roommate.
"When he got back from New York, I was trying to talk to him and everything and he was trying to go to sleep," said Norman. "I was like, 'Man, I ain't seen you in a week and you won't even sit down and talk to me.'"
It wasn't like he had any good stories for his junior receiver from Midland, Texas. All he did was visit New York City for the first time, climbed the World Trade Center after never having been in a building more than six flights high and froze his butt off at Rockefeller Center looking at the world's most talked about Christmas tree. Oh, he happened to attend the Heisman Trophy ceremony at the Downtown Athletic Club, too. Finished second, in fact.
Not that Norman could get those details out of him until much later.
"He enjoyed it a lot," said Norman, who caught 31 balls for 469 yards and one touchdown this fall. "He went up there and had a great time."
Norman said he and his teammates were upset that Chris Weinke beat him out for the coveted bronzed statue because they felt he was worthy of the award, but that Heupel hasn't spoken about not winning it.
"Like anyone will tell you about Josh, he's not worried about personal accolades," he said. "He could go out there and throw for two yards and five interceptions. As long as we won, he'd be very content with that."
Norman said his roommate's demeanor hasn't changed at all since the early fall when he went from being a pretty good quarterback in the Big 12 to a household name as the Sooners started knocking off top 10 opponents.
"He's the same way all time," he said. "What you see is what you get. I don't think -- no, actually I know -- he's not going to change for anyone or anything. That's the way he was raised. He was brought up in a good home, and that's carried through his living and through his life. That's the way he's always going to be.
"He doesn't like to talk about himself ever. Most of the time, he just prefers to be alone."
The extrovert from Texas living with introvert from the sticks. Sounds like a bad sitcom. But Norman is adamant in pointing out that their different ways of going about things doesn't detract from them being good friends and the right match to live together. He's happy to have gotten to know Josh since there's probably no way they would have started a friendship had they not been part of the Bob Stoops rebuilding project.
"That's the only differences we have as far as us rooming together," said Norman. "I guess us being on the same team, playing the same sport helps out a lot."
Plus, Norman gets to continue every wideout's favorite statement long after they're off the field: "I was open."
Gotta love No. 20
Former Sooner great Spencer Tillman was so touched to be standing on the grounds of the Orange Bowl, a place he frequented three New Year's Days in a row from 1985-87. During Oklahoma's portion of Media Day, he brought his old No. 20 jersey. With the Orange Bowl patch from the 1987 game against Arkansas still stitched on at the shoulder, Tillman pulled it on over his suit to the delight of the current squad.
"Old school," said the current college football analyst for Fox Sports Net. "Old school."
He explained why it was so wrinkly.
"It was up in my attic at home," said Tillman. "I brought it out just for this because of tradition. Anything a coach or anyone can take to inspire or encourage kids is a good thing. A lot of good memories happened here, particularly for me in that jersey. I was the MVP of the Orange Bowl as a senior. I had an 80-yard run down that sideline."
It was a 77-yard run to open OU's 42-8 romp over the Razorbacks, but who's counting?
Another reason Tillman donned the shirt was to take a picture with current No. 20 -- All-American linebacker Rocky Calmus. For anyone who has ever wondered why Oklahoma's strapping linebacker wears the number of a running back or DB, simply look at Tillman. After taking a photo with the then-Sooner in Calmus' hometown of Jenks, Okla., Rocky's mother had both of her sons wear his number when they started playing football. And he never saw reason to make a change.
"I feel honored," said Tillman. "One day I looked up and said, what's this linebacker doing with No. 20? Then I looked and said, that's Rocky Calmus! He still wears 20, and that's cool.
"I wore No. 20 because of Billy Sims. That's how you pass on tradition."
Speaking of tradition, what does Tillman remember most about playing for the national championship in the 1986 Orange Bowl against Penn State?
"Barry Switzer grabbed me in the tunnel and said, 'I love you,'" said Tillman. "I never had a coach tell me that, and I was stunned. I never forgot that, and that's what I remember the most."
Media Day shenanigans
Media Days used to be for writers and TV news crews to have carte blanche to sound bites and one-on-one interviews. Nowadays, these events are presumably held so that the players-interviewing-players phenomenon can continue to grow.
|  | | Media Day featured some pranks, like Tay Cody interviewing Chris Weinke. |
While Oklahoma's Seth Littrell and Florida State's Tay Cody spent much of their allotted hour helping crews from ESPN, the Sunshine Network and Fox Sports Net, the rest of their teammates sat in the sun on the Orange Bowl bleachers playing up to the slew of camcorders that each team carried in tow.
After Florida State sports information director opened up questioning by saying, "This is not hallowed ground for us," here were some of the best bits of the fool-around session:
FSU defensive end Jamal Reynolds picked up a pencil-necked anchor from Fox Sports Net by the shirt and transplanted him five yards down the field when asked what he was going to do to Josh Heupel. (For those who see it on television, it was a rehearsed skit).
Oklahoma defensive end David Jones sang "Amazing Grace" when holder Patrick Fletcher mock-interviewed him.
Fletcher doing, frankly, a pretty good job in introducing kicker Tim Duncan, said that he also displayed his accuracy by bowling a near perfect game once (296).
Chris Weinke responding to Cody's claim that the Heisman voters would have felt differently if they saw him lob balls at practice: "That's a lie about you catching any of my passes. In four years, you haven't intercepted a pass of mine yet."
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
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