Oklahoma OC Seth Littrell has 'a lot of great memories in Tucson' coaching Arizona

SAN ANTONIO — In today’s age of college athletics, there’s often time a connection between two teams facing each other. Maybe it’s transfer players; perhaps it’s through recycled coaches.

Thursday’s Valero Alamo Bowl — the third-ever matchup between the 14th-ranked Arizona Wildcats and No. 12 Oklahoma Sooners — has a few of the latter, though this time they’re all on OU’s sidelines.

Oklahoma will debut co-offensive coordinators Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley as the duo charged with replacing former play-caller Jeff Lebby; Lebby accepted the head coaching vacancy at Mississippi State (the Bulldogs, as it would turn out, also happens to be one of three teams to beat Arizona this season).

Littrell, a former Arizona offensive coordinator under then-head coach Mike Stoops, was thrust into OU’s offensive coordinator role after serving this season as an offensive analyst. In Finley’s case, he went from tight ends coach to one-half of the play-calling tandem for the bowl game and the 2024 season.

Littrell and OU offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh were colleagues at Arizona during the Stoops era. Additionally, Sooners running backs coach DeMarco Murray spent one season in Tucson under former UA head coach Kevin Sumlin in 2019, when he mentored NFL running backs J.J. Taylor and Gary Brightwell before joining his alma mater in Norman, Oklahoma.

Littrell said his time in Tucson as an assistant “was great”; now 45, he was in his early 30s at the time.

“A young, first-time coordinator. My wife’s second move; we were both young. My first child was born in Tucson,” Littrell said. “We have a lot of great memories in Tucson. We had a very fun coaching staff who went to bowl games and had some success. It was a great place to live — great people.”

Most of those great memories at Arizona weren’t from bowl experiences, though. As an offensive play-caller at Arizona, Indiana, North Carolina and his head coaching stint at North Texas, Littrell is 0-8 in bowl games. The last and only time the Wildcats played in the Alamo Bowl was in 2010 when Arizona was blasted 36-10 by Oklahoma State.

“We didn’t make the plays we needed to win,” Littrell said Tuesday of that game from more than a decade ago. “It was a very talented group. It’s a great bowl, the Alamo Bowl. They’ve always treated us great whenever I’ve been here. It’s been a lot of fun for our players. Each and every game is different. If you’re asking me about the ins and outs of a game 13 years ago, it’s hard for me to remember every play, but it was a great bowl experience for us.”

Littrell, a disciple of air-raid pioneer Mike Leach at Texas Tech, took over Arizona’s offense in 2010 alongside Bedenbaugh when former UA offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes became the head coach at Louisiana Tech that year.

For two seasons at Arizona, Littrell mentored Arizona’s all-time passing leader and Super Bowl MVP quarterback Nick Foles.

“He was a very good player for us,” Littrell said of Foles. “We had a bunch of talented players when I was there. But Nick is a great young man, an unbelievable football player and has done some big-time things at the next level as well. Just terrific.”

To this day, Littrell maintains connections with his former colleagues from the UA.

“It’s like anything, when you’re around those coaches over the years, you always try and stay in touch,” he said. “We have a pretty cool group. We all, when we have time at conventions, still hang out. If we need to catch up on the phone every now and then, yes, we do.”

In some ways, becoming Oklahoma’s offensive coordinators is a full-circle moment for Littrell and Finley, considering both of them played for the Sooners. Littrell was a running back; Finley played tight end.

“I’ve picked Oklahoma three times,” Finley said. “I picked it as a player in (2003) and then came back as a (graduate assistant) in 2012 and ‘13 and then as soon as I got a call to come back here three years ago, I couldn’t get in the car fast enough.”

Added Littrell: “For me obviously being born and raised here, my father played here and so that’s all I ever knew growing up. That was my dream growing up.”

Littrell will live out that dream starting on Thursday, but it won’t be an easy task facing a much-improved Arizona defense that’s “very disciplined,” said OU’s leading receiver Drake Stoops, son of OU coaching legend Bob Stoops, meaning he’s also the nephew of the former Arizona head coach.

“They definitely know where they’re supposed to be and where their help is and how they can complement each other in their schemes,” Stoops said. “They’re real strong inside.

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“On the back end they’re disciplined, and they’re all really kind of playing together. You’ve got to pick and choose when and where to attack.”

Arizona defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen said the Wildcats have studied Littrell’s offenses from his previous stops, including Indiana a decade ago.

“We have a lot of (graduate assistants) so we had to put them to work to get our guys ready, and we take pride in preparing our guys,” he said.

Oklahoma freshman quarterback Jackson Arnold, a former five-star recruit in 2023 out of Denton, Texas, will make the first collegiate start of his career against the Wildcats after two-year starter Dillon Gabriel transferred to Oregon earlier this month.

“Like I told him, ‘We’re both getting our first start together,’” Littrell said. “It’ll be an amazing time. No one better to do it with.”

Arnold has appeared in five games this season, completing 18 of 24 passes for 202 yards and two touchdowns. After Gabriel was injured against BYU, Arnold stepped in and led the Sooners to a 31-24 win. It was Arnold’s fifth appearance this season, which burned his redshirt season.

“That’s not an easy conversation with a player, but with Jackson, if it helps his team right now, he’s all-in,” Littrell said. “He didn’t blink an eye. He’s prepared the right way all year. This isn’t the first time he’s prepared to be the starter in a football game, because that’s what he does. He’s prepared all year long and he set himself up for success going into that game and he was able to make those plays with his preparation. That’s something I know he’ll continue to do.”

Arnold’s offensive line won’t be at full strength with three starters missing between the transfer portal and NFL draft preparation. Littrell remains confident in OU’s line coached by Bedenbaugh, who Littrell called “one of the best coaches I’ve been around my whole life and I know he’s going to have those guys prepared.”

“It all starts up front. Each and every week, it starts on the line of scrimmage. That’s where it’s all at,” Littrell said. “Coach Bedenbaugh does an unbelievable job not only recruiting but developing these young men. Proof is in the pudding right there. ... I have a lot of faith in him.”

While Littrell is consumed by the Xs and the Os of the Alamo Bowl and the challenges of facing a rising Arizona team, he’s “just as much of a fan as I am a coach.”

“This place obviously means everything to me,” he said of being back with the Sooners this season for the first time since his playing days.

“I’ve been trying to get back here for 23 years, and so this is obviously the place I want to be,” he added. “That’s what makes this place so special. I’m just glad to be home.”

Extra points

Arizona and Oklahoma held a joint pep rally at Riverwalk Arneson River Theatre. The Wildcats and Sooners arrived to the “Ricos River Rally” on riverwalk boats.

Though listed as a 7:15 start, the Alamo Bowl is expected to ultimately kick off at 7:20 p.m. — potentially 7:25 — depending on the ending of the Pop Tarts Bowl between NC State and Kansas State.

Former Arizona defensive end Orin Patu announced on Twitter that he’s transferring to Bethune-Cookman after one season with the Wildcats.

Arizona and Oklahoma attended the Utah Jazz-San Antonio Spurs NBA game Tuesday at Frost Bank Center. Former Wildcat and Jazz star Lauri Markkanen faced top overall pick Victor Wembanyama.