HURRICANE OUTLOOK
After having three games canceled and two postponed because of COVID19, Tulsa is ready to play its third game of the season
At what should be the midpoint of the year, the University of Tulsa remains on an emotional roller coaster.
The stop-and-start nature of the season has been difficult to navigate, with three games canceled and two others postponed because of COVID-19. Through seven weeks, the Hurricane has played two games.
“We played Game 1 vs. Oklahoma State, then we turned around and played another Game 1 vs. Central Florida and now we're turning around and playing another Game 1 vs. South Florida,” coach Philip Montgomery said.
Last week's cancellation because of Cincinnati's positive test results and contract tracing was the latest blow for TU, which split games against No. 11 teams and was amped to face the eighthranked Bearcats in what would have been the homeopener. That game has been pushed back to Dec. 5.
“I got the text message that we had a team meeting at the last minute and I got the sense of what it was about,” TU receiver Sam Crawford Jr. said. “I won't lie to you; I was pretty mad. ... That was our first top-10 matchup in a long time, and we were really pumped to play that game.”
Adding insult to injury was a Tuesday comment by Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell, who said his team had no positive cases by the end of the week: “I still believe in some ways we panicked a little bit, in my eyes. ... In
my eyes, I don't know that we couldn't have played.”
TU will have gone 20 days between games by the time Friday night's meeting with USF kicks off. After an August during which TU was limited to seven preseason practices in a crucial 17-day span, the Hurricane now would love to be able to do more than practice.
“Obviously they're tired of practicing,” Montgomery said. “They're wanting to play games. They've done a good job of bringing energy every day. Their focus and their intent have been really good, so we've just got to put
it all back together and do it on the field again.”
Among the few positives: The additional time between games has allowed the offense to get more work in.
In the first two games, TU totaled 98 yards and two points in the first quarter and 617 yards and 39 points in the final three.
“I think we're taking some really positives steps,” Montgomery said. “I think we have the potential of being a potent-type offense, but we need games and we need reps in games and we need that type of (experience) to allow us to grow and develop and get to the next step.
“Luckily we get to go against, in my opinion, an extremely aggressive and physical and tough defense in our own defense very day, but at some point in there you've got to do it with things on the line and do it underneath the lights and it's just different come game time.”