Finally at home, Tulsa looks to keep momentum against ECU
With Zaven Collins being Tulsa’s most talked about defensive player since Willie Townes, one might think it would be tough for Collins to stay humble.
But that is not the case for Tulsa’s extremely talented linebacker, who leads a surging Golden Hurricane against visiting East Carolina at 8:05 Friday night in Tulsa’s long-awaited home opener at H.A. Chapman Stadium.
“I had an old coach tell me never let ink get in your eyes, and that’s good or bad,” Collins said of not taking press clippings too seriously, negative or positive.
It is highly doubtful any Tulsa defender has had a better three-game stretch than the 6-foot-4, 260-pound junior from Hominy. He was the college defensive player of the week in the first game, and has been the AAC conference player of the week after his last last two games.
The sight of Collins’ brilliant and athletic interception of a short pass last week in TU’s 42-13 win at USF was something to see. Collins read the quarterback and jumped to intercept the pass, which he first tipped then hauled in, and raced 38 yards for the touchdown to basically seal the game 35-13 in the third quarter.
“The crazy part with Zaven is I still don’t feel like he is even close to his potential of what he can do. He is still learning the position,” said Tulsa head coach Philip Montgomery. “We can all look at his measurables, how big he is, how fast he can run, the way he fits things, his athleticism, but I think sometimes we miss on how smart he is as a football player in putting himself into position, and being able to read and react the way that he does.”
The way Collins is playing, he is setting himself up to be a high NFL draft choice, just like Willie Townes was as a 2nd round choice by the Dallas Cowboys in 1966, and also a 1st rounder by the Boston Patriots the same year. He was the starting left defensive end in the 1966 and 1967 NFL Championship games before a knee injury in 1968 derailed his career.
But Collins will be the quick to state that his defensive teammates and the coaches are setting him up to succeed.
“He’s a special player, and I think he’ll be the first one to tell you he is more concerned with wins than anything else,” Montgomery said of Collins.
On the verge of being ranked in the top 25, Tulsa (2-1, 2-0 AAC) has played lights out defense for most of the year, only allowing an average of 17.7 points per game. From lock-down coverage in the secondary to the run-stopping of the defensive front, TU’s defense has been stellar.
“With some of the things we’re doing in the secondary, I think that has allowed us to free him (Collins) up a little bit and to be much more involved in some of the blitz package things, to be a better rusher," Montgomery said. "To really utilize that skill set because we’ve been able to change the coverages and do some things because of the corners and safeties that we have and the way they are playing right now.”
Collins currently has eight tackles for losses, including three sacks among his 18 solo tackles, two interceptions, two pass breakups, one pass defended and a forced fumble.
It has been quite a progression for the former high school quarterback and safety who was a freshman All-American. Collins was outstanding as a sophomore last season, but he seemingly gets better every week.
“The game has really slowed down for me tremendously. Just knowing I can pick up on really small stuff,” Collins said. “Whenever I was a freshman, I was just trying to pick up on the defensive call in my mind. I’m going through, what’s my job, what’s his job, what is going to happen here. If this guy does this, he could do that.
“Now, it feels like all those steps that were going through my mind are being skipped now, because it's habit of nature for me. Reading the offense, reading guys’ body language, reading their eyes, watching to where they are going to go, tackling well.”
Not bad for a guy whose only other scholarship offer out of Class A Hominy was to FCS school Central Oklahoma.
The challenge this week for Collins and his high flying teammates is to keep in check East Carolina’s offense.
Playing East Carolina (1-3, 1-2 in 2020; 4-8, 1-7 in 2019) would seem like an easy task for a Tulsa team favored by over 17 points. And especially considering the Pirates haven’t had a winning season since 2014.
But ECU has been playing better football lately under second year coach Mike Houston. In its most recent game, ECU lost 27-23 to pesky Navy. Just ask Tulsa fans how challenging playing Navy is every year. ECU’s only win was a 44-24 victory at USF.
Leading the way for ECU is accomplished quarterback Holton Ahlers. The 6-3, 228-pound lefty missed ECU’s last game two weeks ago due to having COVID-19. He is averaging 224.3 yards passing per game after averaging 282.3 yards in a 2019 season where he also rushed for 359 yards and six touchdowns.
In Tulsa’s 49-24 victory at East Carolina in the season finale last year, Ahlers led the Pirates in rushing with 35 yards on six carries, and also completed 28 of 47 passes for 308 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.
Tulsa’s biggest worry may be stopping freshman sensation Rahjai Harris, a 2020 early enrollee who gained 172 yards on 22 yards in his last game against Navy. In his previous game, the 5-10, 228-pound Harris rushed for 115 yards on 19 carries.
Fortunately for Tulsa in last year’s game, Zach Smith torched ECU by completing 21 of 30 passes for 331 yards and five touchdowns, and Shamari Brooks rushed for 202 yards on just 16 carries.
With no Brooks this season, Tulsa running backs Deneric Prince, Corey Taylor and T.K. Wilkerson have taken up the slack. Prince rushed for 109 yards on 15 carries last week, including a 62-yard touchdown run.
Stopping Harris and Ahlers is a challenge. But even so, this is a game Tulsa should win convincingly.
ECU is not necessarily the pushover it was the last few years. But this is a game where Tulsa needs to take care of business and move on. For the maximum capacity of 3,900 fans at H.A. Chapman, that would mean TU's first home win in nearly a year.