Tulsa Continues Preparations for Saturday's Season Opener
8/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 24, 2008
Tulsa, Oklahoma -
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Less than one week before its season opening football game, the Tulsa Golden Hurricane continues its' preparations for the season opener at Conference USA opponent UAB.
Tulsa went through a one-hour workout on Sunday afternoon and will take Monday off before returning to the practice field on Tuesday. Tulsa and UAB will kick-off on Saturday at 3:00 pm at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.
Tulsa Head Coach Todd Graham has been pleased with his teams' preparations for the season.
"We have great character on this team. I have a lot of trust in a lot of these guys. We have a lot of young guys who are going to play, and you wonder how they're going to react when the gun goes off. That's the key. We go into that first game not wanting to beat yourself. The key is to get 11 guys on the field that operate as 1/11th," said Graham. "You never know each year until you go out and play."
Tulsa hosted UAB last year and captured a hard-fought 38-30 victory. Graham knows that winning on the road is a tall order.
"The hardest thing to do in college football is to win on the road. It's UAB's home opener and they'll be very excited. They're talking about how physical they're going to be and they have great athletes. We have to come with our A-game. We have to come prepared to play 60 minutes of disciplined, hard-nosed and tough football. It will be a big challenge, there's no question about that," said Graham. "Anybody in our conference can beat anybody, especially if you're not prepared. I've challenged these guys to get prepared and not to beat ourselves. We have to take care of the football, can't have stupid penalties and can't give up cheap touchdowns. If we do that we'll be in good shape."
Graham and the Tulsa coaching staff will continue to make sure the Hurricane is fully prepared for the season opener and make sure "no stone is left uncovered."
"You're never where you want to be. We're always, pushing, pushing, pushing and pushing. We're where I thought we'd be. I think we have a very good football. We have to learn and see how we'll react and play on game day," added Graham. "We have a lot of young and inexperienced guys, especially at the linebacker spot and strong safety spot on defense. Both safeties and all three linebackers are new people, and we'll have to see how they'll respond under fire. We have to really press hard. We have to get prepared, and make sure we have left no stone uncovered when we go through this last week."
In addition to the physical preparations, the Hurricane will continue mental preparations for UAB.
"This last week is definitely mental, but we go hard for two hours every day and that's part of our conditioning. I told the kids, that iron sharpens iron, there's no other way to get around working hard and being physical everyday and that's what we do. Our guys have to get themselves ready mentally to play the game, because I want these guys to play better next Saturday, then any day in camp," said Graham.
