Tulsa Football Starts Practice on Friday

TULSA, Okla. – Philip Montgomery will lead the 2020 Golden Hurricane football onto the practice field Friday morning to begin preparations for the upcoming season.

A total of 108 players will begin workouts Friday.

"I'm excited to get started. With the 20-hour rule, we've been able to get on the field a little bit the last couple weeks and experience some of that, but it's never like the first day of came. I'm thrilled to get Just to be back on the field to start real football and, honestly, just excited to watch our kids work," said Montgomery.

Tulsa returns a total of 43 lettermen, including 19 on offense, 22 on defense and two specialists.

Unlike the 2019 campaign when the defensive side of the ball returned 10 starters, this year it's the Tulsa offense with a bevy of starters. On offense, the Hurricane returns nine starters and 100 percent of its rushing, passing and total yards.

Defensively, although just four starters return to the unit, an additional seven defenders have started at least one career game.

Both sides of the ball possess good depth at nearly every position. On offense, Zach Smith leads the attack from the quarterback position, but his backup Seth Boomer, who has eight career starts, returns as well. Last year, Smith completed 246 passes for 3,279 yards and 19 touchdowns, with only nine interceptions.

Zach Smith passes — Quarterback Zach Smith

Tulsa's running back group has the second-most returning rushing yards and TDs of any team in the nation other than Clemson. Tulsa returns 4,541 career yards and 51 touchdowns, second to Clemson's 5,887 yards and 74 TDs. Seniors Shamari Brooks and Corey Taylor II have combined for 4,190 of those yards and 45 touchdowns.

It's the second year of an offensive line rebuild for the Hurricane that saw this front wall come together as the season progressed. The projected starting lineup up-front for the Tulsa offense averages 6-feet, 3-inches and 319 pounds.

The Tulsa defense has made significant improvement since installing the 3-3-5 defense for the 2018 season, and although the Hurricane loses a number of starters, there is a tremendous amount of experience and depth that returns defensively.

Two-year starting linebacker Zaven Collins, a returning all-conference player, leads the Hurricane defense and a linebacking corps that returns a total of six lettermen. Collins is Tulsa's returning leader for tackles and TFLs. The 3-man front returns five lettermen, three of whom have started games in the past including nose guards Jaxon Player and Tyarise Stevenson and end Cullen Wick.

Tulsa is loaded on the backend with experience, depth, length and speed that will be tested week-in and week-out in the American Athletic Conference.

Allie Green and Cristian Williamas — Cornerback Allie Green IV

Corners Allie Green IV and Akayleb Evans bring 31 starts between them, while nickel safeties Cristian Williams and Bryson Powers have combined to start 23 games and free safety TieNeal Martin has four starts.

The Tulsa offense will look for explosiveness at every skill position behind an older and more experienced line, with the Hurricane enters its third year in the 3-3-5 defensive scheme with even more athleticism, size and speed.

Tulsa Football Starts Practice on Friday

Players Mentioned

Seth Boomer

Shamari Brooks

Zaven Collins

Akayleb Evans

Allie Green IV

TieNeal Martin

Jaxon Player

Bryson Powers

Zach Smith

Tyarise Stevenson

Corey Taylor II

Cullen Wick

Cristian Williams

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