The only NCAA Division I football team in Oklahoma with a winning record.
What a start for the Golden Hurricanes! With a 3-0 record, Tulsa is the only NCAA Division I football team in Oklahoma with a winning record thus far into the season. This is the best start for the Hurricanes in the last 11 years. They began their winning season on Sept. 5 against Oklahoma State University, where they took control of the close game in the opening of the second half to win 24-10. They continued in victory on Sept. 12 against the Sam Houston State Bearkats. After being down the majority of the game, the Hurricanes pulled ahead in the third quarter with a fake punt snapped to redshirt freshman Tristan Lawyer. He ran 56-yards for a Hurricane touchdown, pulling the Hurricanes ahead 16-14. They sealed the victory a mere minutes later, with Senior Trequan Jones running an 81 yard touchdown for a 22-14 lead that was followed by a field goal. The game concluded with the Hurricanes earning the 23-17 victory over the Bearkats.
After a big win over a longstanding rival in the Cowboys and a late-game comeback against the Bearkats, it would be easy for the team to let the numbers and recognition inflate their egos, but for the players of the Hurricane, it is quite the opposite. Junior cornerback Elijah Green said that there is always a “next game” mentality on this team. This is not to downplay their success, but rather to “not have too big of a head,” as he put it, going into the next game. A huge game for the Hurricanes will be the Arkansas Razorbacks on Sept. 26. However, the “next game” mentality extends only onto the upcoming game. As Green explains, “there are no jitters about Arkansas. As far as right now, we are only focused on East Texas.” This “next-game” mindset clearly paid off, after the Hurricane single-mindedly obliterated them this past Saturday, winning the game 42-0.
Though the coaching staff has instilled this notion in their head, Green mentions that their team is player-led, so while their coach may stress the mentality, it did not take long for them to get on board. Keeping their heads out of the clouds is easy to prioritize for this year’s team, as they have firsthand knowledge of what it looks like to get ahead of themselves: “What we tell ourselves and what we keep in mind is what happened last year. We won a few games and got big heads, then we got comfortable and lost a bunch of games in a row,” Green said.
Green is one of two Hurricanes on the watchlist for the Jim Thorpe Award, along with Zach Williams, and the only Tulsa player on the watchlist for the Chuck Bednarik Award. Both are prestigious awards for defensive positions. The Chuck Bednarik is a general Defensive Player of the Year Award while the Jim Thorpe is specifically for the Defensive Back. The Jim Thorpe Award semifinalists will be announced Oct. 27, at 11 a.m., the finalists at 11 a.m. on Nov. 24, and the winner will be announced on Dec. 11 at 6 p.m. Semifinalists for the Chuck Bednarik Award will be announced on Nov. 10, with the three finalists unveiled on Nov. 24, and the winner finally announced on Dec. 10 as part of the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show.
There is so much more to come for Tulsa football that gives hope not only to the team, but to the entire campus. This football team is the primary athletic team at the University of Tulsa, and their success ultimately produces a reliable fanbase for the school. The rise of Tulsa football is not just notable on this campus, but to football fans across the nation. The Hurricane is making an appearance on numerous social media and news outlets, and if the team stays vigilant in its next-game mentality, then the buzz around them now is only the beginning.
