Aberdeen, South Dakota native Josh Heupel has been named the new head football coach for the University of Central Florida.
UCF announced the decision to hire Heupel on Tuesday. The head coaching job position opened last week when Scott Frost signed on to be the new head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Heupel is an Aberdeen Central graduate, where he played quarterback for the Golden Eagles. In college, he spent time with Weber State and Snow College, both in Utah, before transferring to the University of Oklahoma.
While a Sooner, he was the runner-up for the 2000 Heisman Trophy award, and he led Oklahoma to the National Championship victory in 2001 over Florida State in the Orange Bowl.
After a short stint in the NFL, Heupel went back to the college ranks to get into coaching. His coaching resume to this point is highlighted with being the quarterbacks coach for Oklahoma (2006-10), co-offensive coordinator for Oklahoma (2011-14), assistant head coach and offensive coordinator for Utah State (2015), and the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Missouri State (2016-17).
Heupel’s new job at UCF is his first opportunity as a collegiate head football coach.
Ken Heupel, Josh’s father, was the head coach for seven seasons at Northern State Univeristy, which included a conference championship in 1999.
