TULSA-ECU GAME PREVIEW

TULSA-ECU GAME PREVIEW

10/30/2020 8:08:00 AM | Football

Tulsa Opens Home Season Friday Night Against East Carolina; First Home Game in 341 Days

GAME 4: TULSA (2-1, 2-0 American) vs. EAST CAROLINA (1-3, 1-2 American)
Date/Time:	Friday, Oct. 30, 8:00 p.m. (CT)
Site:	Tulsa, Oklahoma
Stadium:	Skelly Field @ H.A. Chapman Stadium
Coaches:	TULSA – Philip Montgomery (Tarleton State '95), 6th year ECU – Mike Houston ( Mars Hill '94), 2nd year
TV:	ESPN2 or WatchESPN
Talent:	Clay Matvick (pxp), Rocky Boiman (analyst)
Tickets:	Buy HERE
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM or Online
Talent:	Bruce Howard (pxp), Rick Couri (analyst)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Virtual Program:	Game Day Program
Series:	ECU leads 8-7
First Meeting:	Oct. 13, 1984 (Tulsa 31, ECU 20), Tulsa, Okla.
Last Meeting:	Nov. 30, 2019 (Tulsa 49, ECU 24), Greenville, NC
Game Notes:	Tulsa (PDF) \| ECU (PDF) \| American Athletic Conference
Post-Game Press Conference:	Live Post-Game Press Conference

It's been 341 days since the Tulsa Golden Hurricane last played a home game at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

Tulsa will tee it up Friday night against the East Carolina Pirates in an American Athletic Conference as the Hurricane celebrates the 90^th season of Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

The stadium opened on Oct. 4, 1930 as Skelly Field and in 2007 was renamed H.A. Chapman Stadium. Not only has it been 341 days since Tulsa's last home contest, but it's the latest home opener ever in the stadium's history.

Tulsa comes into the contest with a 2-1 overall record and a 2-0 league mark, while ECU, who was idle last week, has a 1-3 mark and is 1-2 in AAC play. This year, the two teams have each defeated the USF Bulls with Tulsa getting a 42-13 win last week, while the Pirates garnered a 20-point win over the Bulls.

Going into Friday morning, tickets still remained for Tulsa's first home game of the season.

The matchup features an East Carolina team that scores 31 points per game compared to 27.7 for the Hurricane. Defensively, Tulsa holds its opponents to 18.3 points, while ECU gives up a league-high of 37.8 points.

The Pirates offense has two capable quarterbacks. Junior Holton Ahlers has started 3 of ECU's games, but missed the last outing due to COVID related protocol. True freshman Mason Garcia stepped in for Ahlers in ECU's last game and nearly pulled off the upset against Navy, losing jby just four points, 27-23.

On the season, Ahlers has completed 57-percent of his passes for 673 yards and 6 TDs, while in 25 career games has already totaled nearly 6,000-career passing yards and has 39 touchdowns.

The Pirates' receiving corps is young and loaded. Leading the way for ECU is 5'7" inside receiver Tyler Snead with 194 yards on 20 receptions, while 6'2" sophomore C.J. Johnson has caught just 7 passes while averaging 23.7 yards per catch with 3 touchdowns.

Junior Blake Proehl has caught 19 passes for 144 yards, while he enters tonight's game with a reception in 19 straight games. Audie Omotosho is ECU's fourth 100+ yard receiver with 102 yards on 8 receptions. In addition, the Pirates also utilize their 3 tight ends in the passing game.

ECU's offensive front measures 6'3" and 308 pounds, as the right side of the line is manned by upperclassmen and the left side has a redshirt freshman tackle and sophomore guar as starters. Fernando Frye, a graduate student, anchors the front line at the center position.

Tulsa's defensive improvement has been evident in the early doing as the Hurricane defenders have been opportunistic in 2020 forcing nearly 3 turnovers per game and tallying 32 TFLs for -96 yards to rank 5^th in the nation.

The Hurricane has held its opponents to the league's second-lowest scoring output of 18.3 points and total yardage by allowing just 349.7 yards per game. Tulsa has held the opposition to 132.7 rushing yards and 217.0 through the air.

Leading the way for the Hurricane defense is 6'4" junior linebacker Zaven Collins, a second-team all-conference selection last year. Already this year, Collins was named the Bednarik National Defensive Player of the Week in the season opener against Oklahoma State, the Pro Football Focus Defensive Player of the Week last week in the USF win, while also winning the AAC's Defensive Player of the Week honors for each of those performances.

Collins has totaled 22 tackles, 8 TFLs for -35 yards, 3 sacks for -16 yards, 2 interceptions for 51 return yards, 2 pass breakups, one forced fumble and one safety. Last week, Collins took an interception 38 yards for a touchdown, while forcing a fumble late in the first half deep in Tulsa territory.

Collins is not the only linebacker making an impact on the defensive side of the ball for the Hurricane. Fellow starters Justin Wright and Treyvon Reeves have combined for 29 tackles and 4 TFLs. Grant Sawyer, Robert Revels III and Dorian Hopkins have also seen consistent playing time at linebacker.

Upfront for Tulsa in its 3-3-5 defensive scheme are two players with multiple starting assignments –– junior Jaxon Player and senior Tyarise Stevenson. The two combined for 52 tackles and eight TFLs a year ago, while they have been solid upfront in Tulsa's first 3 games this season. Anthony Goodlow will be the other starter up front for the Hurricane after starting his first career game a week ago. Redshirt freshmen RaQuan Thompson and Cooper Laake and true freshman Haydon Grant will get reps on the front line.

End Cullen Wick's return to the lineup after missing last week's game with an injury will be a game time decision.

The secondary has been solid this year, led by corners Allie Green IV and Akayleb Evans. The two big and tall corners possess good speed and skills to handle opposing receivers. The duo has multiple starts over the last 4 years for the Hurricane, while Tyon Davis, Ryan Nixon and Reggie Ellis will all be in the rotation as well. Green and Evans have combined for 20 tackles this year, while Green had his first career interception against UCF two games ago.

Kendarin Ray is tied with Collins for tackles with 22 stops and has 2 pass breakups while holding down one of the safety spots. Junior Lamar Mullins made his first start last week and totaled 6 tackles and one fumble recovery while filling in for TieNeal Martin, who missed the game.

The nickel safety position is manned by Cristian Williams, Bryson Powers and Daiquain Jackson. Williams missed last week's game as Powers moved into the starting lineup and had 5 solo tackles and one pass breakup.

The Hurricane offense has taken a while to jell, but last week Tulsa showed the potential it possesses, putting up 35 of Tulsa's 42 points against USF.

Senior quarterback Zach Smith has completed 63-percent of his passes for an average of 224 yards per game and 5 TDs. Last year, Smith passed for 3,279 yards, 19 TDs with a 131.9 pass efficiency and just 9 interceptions.

The Hurricane front-line, averaging 6-feet, 3-inches and 342 pounds, and led by tackles Chris Paul on the right side and Tyler Smith on the left, is charged with protecting Smith and paving the way for the Hurricane run game. Tulsa ranks first in the AAC for giving up the fewest sacks with just 3 for 27 yards.

Ever since the school's 5^th-leading rusher Shamari Brooks went down with a season-ending knee injury prior to the opener, Tulsa's run game has been by committee

Tulsa has had a different starter in each of its three games this season. Senior Corey Taylor II, who has 1,618 yards and is ranked 10^th in school history for rushing TDs with 24, was last week's starter. He rushed 12 times for 67 yards and 2 TDs against the Bulls.

Texas A&M transfer Deneric Prince carried most of the load in the opener as the starter, while last week he totaled a season-high 109 yards and 2 TDs on 15 carries for a 7.3 average in a reserve role. T.K. Wilkerson, who missed last week's USF game, was the starting running back in Tulsa's second game at No. 11 UCF and finished with 86 yards.

Freshman redshirt Christian Lovick and Missouri transfer Anthony Watkins were able to get some snaps last week showing the depth at the running back slot.

Tulsa's receiving corps has four returnees that Smith has counted on this season, including leading receiver Keylon Stokes with 14 receptions for 216 yards and one TD, followed by junior Sam Crawford Jr. with 179 yards and one TD and Josh Johnson with 155 yards and a team-high 2 touchdowns on 11 receptions.

A young, but talented tight end position is led by James Palmer, Ethan Hall, Abe Anderson and newcomer Jacob Kainer.

Tulsa's offense will face an East Carolina defense that has given up 458.2 yards per game, including 245.5 through the air and 212.8 on the ground. The Pirates come in with a young, but athletic defensive unit with 7 underclassmen getting starting assignments.

The youth of the ECU team is no more prevalent than on the defensive side of the ball as 21 of its 31 players on the three-deep are either sophomores or freshmen, including 9 true freshmen, 3 redshirt freshmen and 9 sophomores.

Leading the way is junior linebacker Xavier Smith with 43 tackles, while sophomore linebacker Jireh Wilson has totaled 29 stops with 4.5 TFLs, 2 sacks and 3 pass breakups for the Pirates. Senior Aaron Ramseur is also active from his linebacking position with 17 tackles and 3 TFLs for 12 yards.

Shawn Dourseau, a sophomore, leads the secondary from his safety position with 29 tackles and 2 pass breakups. Fellow safety Warren Saba has 15 stops, while starting cornerbacks Ja'Quan McMillian and Malik Fleming have combined for 29 tackles and 2 interceptions.

Upfront, the Pirates are guided by graduate Chris Willis at his defensive end position, while underclassmen – 2 sophomores and one true freshman – hold down the other three spots on the defensive front.

Two young linemen, Sophomore Rick D'Abreu and true freshman Elijah Morris, have totaled 25 tackles for ECU's front line.

The game will kickoff at 8:00 p.m. (CT) and can be seen on ESPN2 with Clay Matvick and Rocky Boiman calling the action.