Tulsa Football Preview: Practice Begins Friday

Explosive is what Tulsa football became accustomed to in the first two seasons under head coach Philip Montgomery, and as the Golden Hurricane enter the 2018 season looking to get back into Bowl contention Montgomery wants to see that explosiveness return on the offensive side of the ball.

Tulsa wants to be explosive on offense, but the opposite can be said for the defensive side of the ball where the Hurricane wants to eliminate an opponent's explosive plays.

"We have to get back to being more explosive offensively. We want to be an up-tempo, fast team, but we also want to be balanced in our attack. That is what makes this offense what it is," said Montgomery. "Defensively, the most important things we have to do is be cohesive as a group, get off the field on third down and eliminate explosive plays.

Tulsa returns 52 lettermen and a total of 27 players on offense and defense that have had starting experience in their collegiate careers with the Hurricane.

In 2017, the Hurricane offense still managed to rank 14^th nationally in rushing, while scoring just under 30 points per game at 29.3. The passing game is where Tulsa needs to add balance this season.

"We must be more consistent in our passing game. We worked extremely hard on that in the spring, and we'll continue during fall camp. If you look back at last year, we were still able to effectively run the football even with some of the things we were seeing from the defense. With that said, we did not do a good enough job in the passing game with young quarterbacks and young receivers, said Montgomery.

"Those guys, quarterback and receivers, will have to continue to step up their game and we have to more consistent and more explosive there for us to do what we want to do," Montgomery added. "Last year, we weren't very balanced so we have to be much more effective in the passing game."

That consistency will have to start at quarterback where Luke Skipper, Seth Boomer and Chad President will battle to take control of the offense. Skipper and President combined to throw for 2,062 yards and only six touchdowns in 2017.

"We have more experience at the receiver positions because of last year's playing time, but now we have to turn that into production and more consistency on the field," said Montgomery.

Senior Justin Hobbs, already a 2,000-yard career receiver, will lead a group of three returning starters, and although Tulsa's loses its all-time rushing leader, sophomores Shamari Brooks and Corey Taylor II lead a running attack that could very well end up among the top-15 nationally for the third straight season.

Three starters who have combined for 100 starting assignments – center Chandler Miller, left guard Tyler Bowling and right tackle Willie Wright – anchor the offensive running game.

"Defensively, we have to do a better job of being able to get off the field," said Montgomery. "We gave up too many explosive plays last year. We would get an opponent in third down situations, even third-and-medium and third-and-long, and we let them off the hook. We have to do a better job of finishing those types of plays and getting ourselves off the field."

Tulsa returns 14 players on defense that started at least one game last year, including its two opening day starting safeties – Manny Bunch and Jordan Mitchell.

McKinley Whitfield, who started the season at outside linebacker, moved to safety due to the injuries and led the Hurricane with 113 tackles along with eight pass break-ups. Corners Reggie Robinson and Akayleb Evans combined for 17 starts, 64 tackles and 13 pass break-ups.

Linebackers Cooper Edmiston and Diamon Cannon were also among Tulsa's top-4 tackles a year ago, as Edmiston totaled 106 stops and Cannon had 60 tackles.

The defensive front, although young, returns five players that saw starting time a year ago. Hurricane coaches also added seven junior college transfers to improve the depth across the defensive unit, including three on the front line, two linebackers and two defensive backs.

"We have to be a little bit better schematically on defense, from the standpoint of doing some different things," said Montgomery "We need to keep the opponent off balance and continue to be aggressive the way we want to be defensively."

THIS WEEK…
TUESDAY… A Look at the Offense
WEDNESDAY… A Look at the Defense
THURSDAY… A Look at the Specialists

Tulsa Football Preview: Practice Begins Friday

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Players Mentioned

Seth Boomer

Tyler Bowling

Shamari Brooks

Manny Bunch

Diamon Cannon

Cooper Edmiston

Akayleb Evans

Justin Hobbs

Chandler Miller

Jordan Mitchell

Chad President

Luke Skipper

Corey Taylor II

McKinley Whitfield

Willie Wright

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