Tulsa makes ‘some strides’ in loss at No. 8 Washington

Although the scoreboard showed a
33-point loss, there was progress made by
the University of Tulsa in a 43-10 setback
to eighth-ranked Washington on Saturday
afternoon in Seattle.
“I thought we made some strides, it
was just a good team, we just didn’t have
enough lead in the pencil today,” TU coach
Kevin Wilson said.
Tulsa (1-1) achieved some of its pre-
game goals. One was to keep Washington’s
offense from reeling off repeated big plays
as it did a week earlier against Boise State.
The Golden Hurricane accomplished
that for the most part, but the Huskies’
Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback
Michael Penix Jr. was able to keep his of-
fense steadily moving down the field with
intermediate throws.
Penix completed 28-of-38 passes for
409 yards and three touchdowns. The Hus-
kies (2-0), who led 22-3 at halftime and
were never threatened, still haven’t lost a
home game against a team from outside the
Pac-12 since 1999.
Tulsa, after committing three early
turnovers last week, improved in that area
and won the turnover battle 2-1. The Hur-
ricane also had an effective ground game
with 168 yards on 40 carries. TU had three
rushers with more than 50 yards apiece.
However, TU’s passing attack could
manage only 150 yards as starter Cardell
Williams suffered a hand injury in the
second quarter and was replaced by third-
string QB Roman Fuller for the rest of the
game.
Williams, who was 13-of-14 for 233
yards and three TDs against Arkansas-Pine
Bluff in his college debut off the bench a
week earlier after starter Braylon Braxton
was injured, couldn’t come close to those
results against the Huskies. He finished
6-of-14 for 65 yards.
Fuller was 12-of-18 for 85 yards. TU re-
sorted to shorter passes and relied more on
its running game than it did against UAPB.
“Their rush is pretty good … so it’s go-
ing to be hard to easily get open,” said Wil-
son about choosing to run the ball more.
“We’re trying to stay a little patient. We’re
not trying to play vanilla, we’re not trying
to take the air out of the ball. We needed to
make a few stops, we needed to make a few
plays but to get in the fourth round we need
to have some balance and we were able to
stay committed to that for the most part.”
Fuller connected with Luke McGary
on a 15-yard TD pass early in the fourth
quarter.
“We trust all those quarterbacks, no
matter who’s back there we have a lot of
trust in them,” said TU center Will Farniok.
“We’re gonna block for them and the wide-
outs are gonna run for them, the running
backs are gonna run for them. So no mat-
ter who’s back there, we’re gonna work our
butts off for each other.”
Washington’s Jalen McMillan had eight
catches for 120 yards and Rome Odunze
had seven receptions for 107 yards. Each
had one TD catch and Odunze also scored
on a 14-yard run.
“At the end of the day, the difference
was their skill could make plays and some-
times we just couldn’t,” Wilson said. “The
ability to make a guy miss, the ability to
make a competitive catch, the ability to be
a little tighter in coverage, and credit to
them and their skill.
“We’ll learn from this, we’ll put togeth-
er our best plan, we’ll play a great week
and then we’ll have this week to move for-
ward.”
TU hosts 18th-ranked Oklahoma at
2:30 p.m. next Saturday at H.A. Chapman
Stadium.