Heupel Should Be Offensive Coordinator

This article is not meant as a slight to Jay Norvell, who is the wide receivers coach and also held the title of "Assistant Offensive Coordinator" while Kevin Wilson was still at OU.

I am advocating that we need to give Heupel the promotion because he is extremely talented at what he does, he's smart, he deserves a promotion, and if we don't give him that soon - someone else will. 

According to Bob Stoops, we should know about the coaching decision soon:

"In a statement Tuesday, Stoops said he will address later this week or early next week what the coaching arrangement will be for the bowl game and the process for filling Wilson's position."

Personally, I don't think that Bob is going to commit to an offensive coordinator for next year when we haven't even hit New Years yet. I think his strategy will be to just name a stand in "offensive coordinator" for the Fiesta Bowl. It might be sort of a trial run, but I think it will indicate who has a leg up in the race. I just hope he doesn't name Heupel and Norvell "co-Offensive Coordinators" and let them split playcalling duty. Mixing and matching stuff like that never seems to work, and the units invariably come out flat and uninspired.

The popular argument would be that Heupel is a Sooner through-and-through and thus is unlikely to bolt for another destination. However, the possibility of him leaving seems to have already been entertained:

"Heupel, who quarterbacked the Sooners to the national championship in 2000, has been a rising star in the coaching world ever since. Heupel reportedly interviewed for the offensive coordinator job at Minnesota back in January, and has aspirations of being a play-caller."

I'm aware you could make a similar argument for Norvell after he recruited Stills and Franks, and he managed to coach Broyles to be one of the top receivers in college football. The problem is that Norvell has already been tested as an offensive coordinator with mixed results. Let me put it another way - another team is far more likely to pick off Heupel than they are Norvell. I happen to think that Heupel is too much of an asset to let that happen.

What do you think?