Tulsa-Bowling Green Battle Tonight in GMAC Bowl
1/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Jan. 6, 2008
Parade and Pep Rally photo Gallery 
l Bowl Central l
Mobile, Alabama - Tulsa and Bowling Green play tonight in the second-to-last college football game of the season as the GMAC Bowl kicks off at 7:06 pm at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in a nationally-televised ESPN contest.
Tulsa will be looking to become the just the sixth team in the 108-year history of Golden Hurricane football to win 10 games. The 1916, 1920, 1942, 1982 and 1991 are the five teams to win 10 games.
The Hurricane has a 9-4 season record, while BGSU comes into the contest with an 8-4 mark. Both teams had 6-2 records in their respective conferences.
The game features two prolific offenses. Tulsa averages a team-leading 542.5 yards per game, while putting up 39.5 points per game. Bowling Green averages 32.1 points and 416.9 yards per game.
Tulsa Head Coach Todd Graham talked about his team's final preparations for Bowling Green following Saturday's walk-thru. "I thought things went great today. We tried to be a little low-key today and let them relax. It's all mental from here on out," said Graham.
"I like this football team. We have great leadership. The kids are experienced and they know what it means to come and win, and the know that we've been short before," said Graham. "The key will be how we respond to the lay-off. It will be very, very important that we don't make stupid penalties, and that has a lot to do with preparation. Now it's mental. From this point forward it's up to each individual getting themselves ready to play and doing what they're supposed to do. If they do that, then we'll be in great shape."
Since his return to Tulsa as head coach less than a year ago (Jan. 12, 2007), Graham has talked about being a football program that wins championships.
"We want to be a program that wins championships. We had an opportunity to play for the conference championships, and fell short. This is a big deal - to be Bowl champions. We don't want to go to the conference championship, we want to win it. We don't want to go to a bowl game, we want to win it. There's nothing else tomorrow we're going to except other than being GMAC Bowl champions," added Graham.
WATCH PARTIES . . . Fans can gather at the following Tulsa-area locations for GMAC Bowl Watch Parties tonight. The Golden Hurricane Club and the Alumni Association are hosting three watch parties in Tulsa at the Hurricane Hut 2, located at the Allen Chapman Activity Center on the TU campus at East 5th Place of of Harvard; Fox and Hound Pub and Grille (7001 South Garnett Road) and Full Moon Café (1525 East 15th Street).
TULSA PRE-GAME NOTES . . . • Tulsa is looking to become just the sixth team in the 108-year history of Golden Hurricane football to win 10 games. The 1916, 1920, 1942, 1982 and 1991 are the five Tulsa teams to win 10 games.
• Tulsa's 2005 Third-Team AP All-America tight end Garrett Mills is Tulsa's honorary captain for this game. He just completed his second NFL season and first with the Minnesota Vikings.
• Senior quarterback Paul Smith needs 247 passing yards and freshman Charles Clay needs 45 more receiving yards for Tulsa to become the first school in NCAA history to have a 5,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard rusher and three 1,000-yard receivers in a single season. Smith has 4,753 passing yards and Clay 955 receiving yards this year.
• With 45 more receiving yards by Charles Clay it would give Tulsa three 1,000-yard receivers this year -- Brennan Marion, Trae Johnson and Clay. All three are in their first seasons at Tulsa. It would be only the third time in NCAA history in which that has occurred. Texas Tech in 2003, and this year's Hawaii trio of Ryan Grice-Mullen, Davone Bess and Jason Rivers.
• Paul Smith is 247 yards shy of reaching the 5,000-yard passing plateau this season to become just the seventh player in NCAA history to accomplish that feat. The others are BJ Symons (Texas Tech, 2003), Colt Brennan (Hawaii, 2006), Ty Detmer (BYU, 1990), David Klingler (Houston, 1990), Kliff Kingsbury (Texas Tech, 2002) and Graham Harrell (Texas Tech, 2007).
• Running Back Courtney Tennial, who sat out this season with an Achilles injury, was granted a sixth year of eligibility on Friday and will return for the 2008 campaign. He was Tulsa's leading rusher in the 2006 season with 845 yards and 14 TDs.
• Tulsa played the first game of the 2007 NCAA Bowl Subdivision collegiate football season against UL-Monroe on ESPN2, starting just 20 minutes before LSU's season opener. Tulsa plays in the second last game of the 2007 season tonight, again before LSU's season finale.
