Knights (7-0) were No. 12 in the opening College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday — equal to their high point last year in their self-proclaimed national championship season — and look to rocket higher beginning with Thursday night’s home game against Temple.

Heupel fits that speed just fine. Before he arrived in Orlando in January for his first head-coaching gig, he spent two years supercharging a Missouri offense under Barry Odom: The Tigers finished No. 124 in the country with 280.9 yards per game in 2015 before jumping to No. 7 in the country with 511.5 yards per game last season. In three years he has risen from coordinator at Utah State to, at age 40, head coach of the team with the longest active winning streak in FBS,at 20 games.

Still, the road wasn’t without a speed bump. And as fast-paced as Heupel is, he has recognized moments that require taking things slow.

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Fast track, derailed

Slow isn’t normally how Heupel operates. As a college quarterback, he transferred from junior college to Bob Stoops’s Oklahoma and in his second season with the Sooners led them to a 13-0 season and the 2000 national championship. As a coach, he worked with the quarterbacks at Oklahoma for four years, tutoring Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford and Landry Jones along the way. He was the co-offensive coordinator at 32.

Then the Sooners went 8-5 in 2014 and lost their bowl game against Clemson, 40-6. Heupel’s former coach — the man who gave him his first coaching job — fired him, derailing Heupel’s