`No moral victories' for TU amid disappointing season
Moments after his team defeated the University of Tulsa last week, Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell gave credit to the Golden Hurricane, which took its third loss in a row.
Fickell said what TU coach Philip Montgomery and Hurricane fans already felt: Tulsa is better than its 2-5 record.
“We've got a good football team,” Montgomery said. “Our record doesn't show that. Luke said it after the game — it's a game that they were worried about knowing that the talent that we have and knowing they were going against a good team, and that's part of it.”
Cincinnati's 24-13 victory bumped the Bearcats from No. 21 to 18 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. With Memphis squeaking into the coaches poll at No. 25, TU's homecoming matchup against the Tigers on Saturday will be its fourth game this season against a ranked opponent. The only other time that has happened in Hurricane history was 2011, when TU went 8-5 and still never beat a ranked foe. The Hurricane is 0-3 against ranked teams this season.
“We're playing great teams( and) we' reina tough conference,” TU safety Manny Bunch said. “We had a very tough outof-conference schedule, and we played toe-to-toe with basically anyone. That lets us know as players that we're a good team and that we can play with the best in the country.”
In 2011, every ranked team TU played was inside the top 10, including No. 1 Oklahoma in the first game of the season. The average margin of defeat to ranked foes that year for the Hurricane was 28. This season, the average margin is 12.7, though no team was ranked inside the top 15 when the game kicked off.
TU started this season with a 28-7 road loss to then-No. 18 Michigan State. Then-No. 24 SMU needed a fourth-quarter comeback and three overtimes to defeat the Hurricane 43-37 on Oct. 5. The Mustangs are still undefeated and have climbed to No. 16 since. Oklahoma State was ranked briefly after beating TU 40-21 in a game the Hurricane led by one at halftime.
“There's no moral victories in anything that we do,” Montgomery said. “We know that at the end of the day it's all about wins, and that's what we're definitely being judged on. I would hope that people would see our football team and understand that it's getting better every week.”