2010 NCAA Football Preview: Tulsa
In Oklahoma's college football scene, it tends to be the Oklahmoa Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys who dominate the lion's share of attention. However, quietly nestled in the city of Tulsa is another very competitive team, the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.
Prior to the arrival of Steve Kragthorpe in 2003 the Golden Hurricane was not very good. The team had only won two games the last two years. Kragthorpe quickly turned the program around, leading it to a bowl game in his first season. A couple of years later in 2005 he led Tulsa to the inaugural Conference USA championship.
Kragthorpe moved on after the 2006 season, leaving the door open for Todd Graham to take over. He had tried to get the job back in 2002, but Kragthorpe was hired instead. After serving as his defensive coordinator for three seasons he was hired to head up the program at Rice. Rice was so enamored with him they gave him a raise after one season.
When the Tulsa job opened up, Graham jumped at it. He was able to continue the success the team had seen under Kragthorpe by winning the conference in his first two seasons in 2007 and 2008. However, the team fell on hard times in 2009 going 5-7.
Last season was a surprise for Tulsa. With many of the key components coming back there is no reason that the Golden Hurricane will not be in contention for the conference title again.
Offense
The offense will have a pretty solid base in the front line and at quarterback. Four of the starters from last year’s group return. They were pretty inexperienced last season and it showed in the number of sacks allowed (118th in the nation). A year of experience should translate into better play this season from a group which could return intact in 2011.
At quarterback they have G. J. Kinne coming back. Kinne was initially recruited by Texas, but transferred to Tulsa; last season was his first as a starter. He was inconsistent at times, but he still managed to throw for 22 touchdowns with only 10 interceptions while completing 60 percent of his passes. If the man was recruited by a quarterback Mecca like Texas, then you know he must have some potential.
Where the team hurts is in the running game. Anytime your quarterback is your leading rusher it is not a good sign no matter what type of offense you run. Next to Kinne, the next highest producer returning is running back Jamad Williams. Having an inexperienced line can be partially to be blame, but that will not be the case this season.
Defense
For the defense it all begins with the big guys up front who are easily the best players on the unit, who got third in sacks in the conference in 2009. The group stands to be even better if second-year player Cory Dorris can improve as expected and junior college transfer Darrell Zellars can continue to impress after having a promising spring.
However, the team is hurting pretty much everywhere else defensively. Only Tanner Antle returns at linebacker; in his second year as a starter he made 78 tackles. The team could look to start red shirt freshman Shawn Jackson at one of the other spots. Jackson was a two-way player in high school that ran for 1200 yards and 20 touchdowns, passed for another 1100 yards and nine touchdowns, and made 77 tackles as a junior.
In the secondary only one starter returns but luckily he is a pretty good one. Free safety Dexter McCoil received a lot of playing time last season and made 84 tackles in the process. Four times he had at least 10 tackles in a game.
The lack of a good secondary will hurt the chances of the Golden Hurricane to make it back to the Conference USA championship game. There are simply too many high powered passing attacks in the conference including the best offense in the nation, the Houston Cougars. If they can figure out how to at least slow them down the team may have enough offense to compete for the top spot in the conference.
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