Oklahoma OC Seth Littrell: ‘I’ve Been Trying to Get Back Here for 23 Years’
Heading into an Alamo Bowl matchup against the 14th-ranked Arizona Wildcats, Oklahoma will be breaking in its brand new offensive coordinator, Seth Littrell.
Littrell is the new offensive coordinator in Norman, but he’s nowhere near new to the sidelines, with five years of experience as an OC and seven year as the head coach at North Texas. With stints at Kansas (under Mark Mangino), Texas Tech (under Mike Leach), Arizona, Indiana (under Kevin Wilson), and North Carolina (under Larry Fedora), there’s not much that Littrell hasn’t seen when it comes to offense.
He’s been a coach on the sideline since 2002 and was a fullback for the Sooners when they won the national championship in 2000, so being elevated from an analyst role wasn’t a courtesy to Littrell — he was certainly fit for the job.
For a smalltown kid from Muskogee Oklahoma, getting to come back to Norman and take over play-calling duties for the Sooners is a dream come true. Simply put, it means everything.
“Being born and raised here, my father played here so that’s all I ever knew growing up. That was my dream growing up.” Littrell said of being the new OC at Oklahoma.
“My mom would sit there and tell me that I was going to follow in my father’s footsteps and have the opportunity to play for a national championship at Oklahoma, and she said that a long time ago, and I would get so excited,” Littrell said at Tuesday’s press conference. “And then we would say our prayers at night, and that’s the honest to God truth, we’d pray on that. She’s been praying over that for my entire life.”
Littrell’s mother predicting a national title for her son is an incredible story, but his journey back to Oklahoma was no fluke. This is something that the Oklahoma native has been working for since he took off the helmet and traded it for a headset.
“This place obviously means everything to me,” Littrell said. “I’ve been trying to get back here for 23 years, and so this is obviously the place I want to be.
“I’m just as much of a fan as I am a coach. I’m a huge fan of Oklahoma. So I have high expectations of this program along with everybody sitting up here and everybody within our program… It’s all about the coaches, the players, and the fans. That’s what makes this place so special and I’m just glad to be home.”
Littrell and the Sooners will take on Arizona in the Valero Alamo Bowl on Thursday night, with kickoff scheduled for 8:15 p.m. CT from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
