Although Manny Bunch is only one of many small town players who excel at TU, he epitomizes the type of player the University of Tulsa needs to succeed.
A terrific athlete, like a lot of players from small towns, Bunch was his school’s best athlete, the former star quarterback. The small town values he possesses have helped make him a success.
But that still doesn’t stop his teammates from bigger cities having a little fun with him while teasing him about small town life.
“They give me a hard time, but it’s all love and fun,” Bunch said. “We’re in the same place, so it doesn’t matter right now.”
The good-natured Bunch hails from Roland (population 2,842), which is very close to the Arkansas border. Fort Smith, Ark. (population 87,845), where he was born, is only six miles away, and Tulsa is a little over an hour and a half away.
“The biggest thing we used to do is we would go to somebody’s house and just hang out, kick back, play games together,” Bunch said. “Kind of more outdoorsy type of stuff. We like to go fishing and stuff like that. You create your own fun.”
The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Bunch has settled in well at Tulsa as the Golden Hurricane’s top returning safety. He has made a terrific transition to major college football.
“Everyone here was just about the best player on their team, so its an equal playing field,” Bunch explained. “I actually graduated from high school early, so I got to come here early and get accustomed to the speed of things, so that helped me a lot.”
As a senior at Roland, Bunch was a two-way player for the 12-2 Class 3A team, amassing 87 tackles, including 10 for loss, 10 passes broken up, and three interceptions while playing safety. On offense, Bunch completed 62 percent of his passes for 1,868 yards and 24 touchdowns while rushing for 1,473 yards and 20 touchdowns.
For TU as a junior in 2018, Bunch started all 12 games and finished third on the team with 80 tackles -- tops among defensive backs. He broke up five passes and had 1.5 tackles for loss.
Bunch and his TU teammates on defense flourished last season, especially against the pass after changing defenses from a 4-3-4 to a 3-3-5 alignment. The change especially helped the pass defense, which finished the season ranked 8th nationally.
“I feel like the change in defense has been really good for the secondary, adding another defensive back out there,” Bunch said. “The defensive backs are really close with each other, so it’s like family back there, and you look back there and it’s five of us across, so it’s kind of like we are our brothers’ keepers, so we have each others’ backs out there.”
The change in defenses, which was instrumented by legendary defensive coordinator Bill Young, and will be continued by new DC Joseph Gillespie after Young’s retirement, is something that Bunch believes keeps the opposing offenses off-balanced.
“The biggest thing is you don’t see other teams running the same tempo that we are running on offense,” Bunch said. “It’s really giving the other team’s quarterbacks like a quiz out there because they are still trying to figure out exactly what we are doing and exactly how we are rotating and rolling coverages out there. I think it is really good because the defense is really unfamiliar to other quarterbacks.”
Bunch realizes the Golden Hurricane needs to improve its run defense this season. And as one of the leading tacklers on the team, that is part of his responsibility as well. Especially when looking forward to playing a team like Navy and its option running offense.
“First thing, you have to be very disciplined when you play teams like Navy because you have to be really gap sound and you have to change you whole defense for teams like Navy. But the biggest thing with Navy is being disciplined, reading your keys. At the safety spot you have to be really patient, so you know when you have to go.”
Discipline is something that Bunch and his teammates will need right from the start, especially in TU’s opener at Michigan State. What seems like a daunting challenge is something that Bunch is eagerly looking towards.
“I think we’re pretty confident going into Michigan State,” Bunch said. “No one has played any games yet. Their record is the same as ours right now. We’re very competitive, we’re very focused with them right now, not because it is Michigan State, but because it is the first game of the season. We’ll go up there and play hard.”
Bunch is also especially looking forward to the home opener against OSU in week three.
“It’s good for our home fans,” Bunch said of hosting OSU. “It’s our first home game of the season, so we’re going to be hyped up. The biggest thing is we have to defend Chapman. We don’t want any opponents to come in here and beat us on the field we work out on, where we wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning to run at 6 a.m.. We lift weights here, we practice here. We definitely have to defend Chapman.”
Bunch expects TU to bounce back after winning five games the last two seasons by winning the AAC conference championship. He believes for TU to do that, he must step up.
“Personally, I’m expecting to have a big year. I’m expecting to be that guy in the secondary, that guy in the defense. I feel like throughout the years I’ve been a really consistent player, I do my job, I make tackles, I break up passes.
“I feel like this year is my year to dominate while still being consistent and make even bigger plays.”
