Just when things were looking really dicey, former walk-on Cole Neph made the biggest play of the whole game. And possibly the entire year.

Trying to avoid a disastrous loss to an FCS team, Neph teamed with quarterback Luke Skipper to come through with a 14-yard touchdown catch on third-and-goal with Tulsa trailing Central Arkansas 27-24 in the fourth quarter.

Neph’s catch gave Tulsa the lead for good with 8:11 remaining and spurred on Tulsa to a 38-27 victory over Central Arkansas Saturday night in front of a nervous 18,386 fans at H.A. Chapman Stadium in the season opener for both schools.

“Man, Cole, he puts in the work,” said Skipper. “And he’s so smart too. That’s what makes it so good. It was a smart route. He was supposed to be running a flag route, but ended up just getting over the top of him and the safety rolled. He just played big and I tried to give him somewhat of a jump on the way there.”

“It’s a play we’ve been working on all week,” said Neph, a 6-foot-3, 240-pound OSU transfer from Owasso. “We saw what we wanted from the defense. There are some moving parts to it. It was open in the the corner and Luke saw the same thing I did. It came together for us and it was a touchdown.”

Starting in place of injured mainstay tight end Chris Minter, Neph caught four passes for 40 yards. Tulsa tight ends only caught five passes for 25 yards all last season, including four for 19 yards by Minter.

“Cole is going to be a great addition to what we were doing,” said TU coach Philip Montgomery. “Brings a lot of diversity to what we do.”

Skipper played a solid game, with the exception of one costly fumble. He completed 15 of 24 passes for 196 yards and two touchdowns.

“He made some big throws when he needed to,” Montgomery said of Skipper. “The big throw to Cole right there in the corner of the end zone, that’s a huge play.

“I thought overall, Luke played well. His first game out, you’ve got to remember we don’t have preseason games. He’ll learn a lot from this.”

The closeness of the game disguised the fact that Tulsa had a major advantage in total yards, outgaining UCA 470-247. It was the fewest yards allowed by Tulsa in a game since 2012 against UCF. The game was close due to Tulsa losing three fumbles compared with two for the Bears, and that Tulsa was penalized nine times for 92 yards while UCA was penalized five times for 35 yards.

“Their defense is really stout,” said first-year UCA coach Nathan Brown of TU. “I think they improved a lot from last year to this year. And then their offense can be as explosive as anybody in the country.”

“We made mistakes. Some of them were silly mistakes," said Montgomery. "Some of them were first-game mistakes we’ve got to better at. That being said, every win’s a good win.”

Tulsa (1-0) trailed briefly in the first half by six points, but led 21-13 at halftime and looked like it was going to put the game away for a brief time. Skipper completed a 41--yard pass to Keenen Johnson past midfield early in the third quarter, and a potential 28-13 lead would have demoralized the Bears.

But Johnson fumbled on the play, and UCA was energized. The Bears looked like they were on the verge of leading in the third quarter when, trailing 21-20, they fumbled the ball away at the 1-yard-line into the end zone. Myles Mouton stripped Carlos Blackmon of the ball, and Robert Revels recovered.

Tulsa was in the position to fall behind because Jarion Anderson failed to touch what seemed to be an easy kickoff to catch. The ball bounced in front of him, and UCA recovered at the 10-yard-line.

Still, the Bears hung in the game into the fourth quarter with Tulsa leading 24-20 when disaster struck the Golden Hurricane.

Skipper fumbled while being sacked on a 16-yard loss, and the ball was picked up and taken to the 5-yard-line by Cardell Best, who then fumbled. But the ball was recovered in the end zone by Justin Morris to give the Bears a stunning 27-24 lead with 11:08 left in the game.

The way TU responded to the adversity, however, defined the contest. Shamari Brooks and Skipper rattled off runs of 26 and 25 yards, respectively, on the drive before the big touchdown pass to Neph.

The momentum had definitely switched back to Tulsa, as Bryson Powers recovered the ensuing kickoff at the UCA 7-yard-line. The high kick into the wind by John Parker Romo was muffed by Cedric Battle.

Tulsa responded with a 1-yard run by Brooks two plays later, and Tulsa all of sudden led 38-27 with 7:36 remaining. After that, UCA had nothing left.

Tulsa benefited from a punishing one-two punch at running back with Brooks gaining 129 yards and scoring two touchdowns on 27 carries, while Corey Taylor rushed 20 times for 110 yards. Both displayed bruising running styles, gaining many yards after contact.

The game had started off extremely well for Tulsa, as Skipper completed a 49-yard touchdown pass to Justin Hobbs on the first possession of the game. On a slightly underthrown ball, Hobbs outleaped the UCA defender for the ball.

For Neph, going from walk-on transfer to starting and catching the winning touchdown catch has been quite a journey.

“It means a lot. These guys took me in. They really took me into the brotherhood like family and I’m eternally grateful,” Neph said. “I’m excited to keep growing with this team, moving on, and maturing.”

• New place kicker Nate Walker made all five of his extra points, and made his only field goal attempt, a 40-yarder in the third quarter that extended Tulsa’s lead to 24-20. Walker is a senior walk-on.

• John Parker Romo handled the kickoffs, and did a solid job. Ironically, it was his first game since playing for Central Arkansas as the Bears’ kickoff specialist in 2016.

• Cornerback Keanu Hill started and played well in his first game since midseason of 2016, but left the game with a slight limp in the third quarter. He tied for the team lead with six tackles.

• Jaxon Player got extended playing time at defensive tackle/nose tackle, and showed why he was such a hyped player. However, he was helped off the field near the end of the third quarter. Neither Player or Hill returned.

• Anderson’s two punt returns for 14 yards surpassed TU’s season total of four punt return yards all last season.

• Tiller Bucktrot started at right guard, but Chris Paul played most of the game at that position. Bucktrot still played on special teams after being replaced.

• Redshirt freshman Cannon Montgomery was the holder on all place kicks, as expected. Philip Montgomery’s son did a great job of handling his first snap, which was considerably high. He put it down perfectly for the successful conversion by Walker.