Tulsa heads to Houston for season finale

Houston's snobbish loathing of Tulsa goes way back. For whatever reason, UH wants to feel superior to TU.

Whenever UH gets a chance, it wants to get out of the same conference as Tulsa. Doesn't even want to give Tulsa a chance to compete.

So Saturday afternoon in Houston is a chance for Tulsa to send the Cougars off to their impending departure from the AAC to the Big 12 with a resounding thud.

Also a sweet prospect for TU is that a Tulsa win would also ruin any chance Houston has of making the conference championship game.

The problem is, as much as TU wants to end the 2022 season on a positive note and ruin Houston's day, the probability is unlikely.

Houston (7-4, 5-2 AAC) in 2022 is simply a better team this year than Tulsa (4-7, 2-5). It hurts for TU fans to admit that. But they all know it's true. Houston is favored by 12 points for a reason.

Added to that reality is the game is at UH's on-campus stadium, TDECU Stadium. It's going to be a tough one for TU.

On the positive side for Tulsa is that the Golden Hurricane has ability, and is capable. Perhaps last week's offensive explosion in defeating USF 48-42 will carry over to the Houston game.

Certainly, the prospect of the huge number of TU players from Texas wanting to come to their home state and show well should mean that Tulsa is motivated to end its season in style.

Keylon Stokes would like nothing better than to end his college career with a victory not far from where he was a star for Manvel High, located in the Houston area.

"This is my bowl game," Stokes said. "Going back home, playing in front of my city. All my friends, family are going to be there. So it would just be great to go home and finish it off with a bang, you know."

Stokes is currently 4th in the nation in receiving yards with 1,177, and has 69 catches for 7 TD's. Already the career TU leader in receiving yards, Stokes has already cemented his place as one of the great receivers in a long line of Tulsa receiving greats.

Currently in third place in school history in receptions, Stokes needs 6 catches against Houston to surpass his brother Keevan Lucas' total of 240 receptions and move into second place, all-time, at TU. Stokes already surpassed his brother in receiving yards a few games ago, with Lucas standing in fourth place in yardage.

"Keylon has been an anchor for us in our program," said Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery.

The question of which Houston team Tulsa will face is an interesting one. Is it the team that barely won at home, beating hapless Temple 43-36 two weeks ago? And lost 77-63 to SMU the week before.

Or is the Cougars team TU will face more like the team that demolished a very solid East Carolina 42-3 last week?

On the list of most annoying coaches in college football, Houston's Dana Holgersen tops the list.

From his stints as OC at Houston and OSU, to head coach at West Virginia, and back to Houston as the head coach, Holgersen has been mostly successful. His offenses are usually explosive.

But there is something about the guy that, intrinsically, rubs people, especially opponents, the wrong way.

In short, he is the perfect Houston coach.

Holgersen follows in the tradition of Jack Pardee, and especially, Bill Yoeman. Yes, Yoeman is the guy who famously ran up the score to 100-6 in 1968 against TU by scoring 49 points in the final quarter after leading 51-6 at the end of the third quarter.

Never mind that most of the TU team had the flu from playing in a snowstorm the previous week in 1968. Yoeman was still miffed that Tulsa had beaten his ranked Cougars in 1967, and that TU had ruined the opening football game in Astrodome history in 1965 with a 14-0 TU win.

Well, at least Tulsa had the final laugh against Yoeman, beating him 3 of the last 4 times - in 1974, 1985, and fittingly, in his last year in 1986 - in the Astrodome.

If TU had the class of some past Houston teams, Tulsa's 56-7 win in 2007 in Tulsa, led by quarterback Paul Smith, could easily have been 80-0. That was the last year Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery was an assistant at Houston before he followed coach Art Briles to Baylor. The year before Holgorsen's arrival.

This year's Cougars are quarterbacked by fifth-year senior Clayton Tune, who may be the best Tulsa has faced all season. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Tune has passed for 11,379 yards in his career, with 99 TD's and only 40 interceptions.

This season, the dual threat Tune is averaging a career best 314.5 yards passing per game, with 35 TD's and 9 picks, while completing 69 percent of his passes. He has rushed for 458 this season for a 4.3 yards per carry average, and has 1,165 yards rushing for his career.

"It all starts with their quarterback, Tune," Montgomery said. "He's been there it seems like forever. He makes great decisions. Really distributes the football. Has a lot of weapons around him. They're pretty balanced in what they want to do. They've got some speed on the outside."

Besides Tune, redshirt freshman running back Stacy Sneed is a major threat on the ground. With 489 yards and a 7.0 yards per carry average, the 5-11, 185-pound Sneed has 374 of those yards in the last 4 games (93.5 yards per game, 8.3 per carry), including 143 yards on just 11 carries last week against Temple.

Tune's favorite receiving target is 5-10, 165-pound Nathaniel Dell, who is second in the nation with 1,193 yards. He has 94 catches for a 12.7 yard average, and 14 TD's.

So with an offense that can pass and run, and a defense that allowed only 3 points on the road last week, this is going to be a considerable challenge for Tulsa to even be competitive. In Tulsa's 5 conference losses this season, the Golden Hurricane hasn't been closer than within 10 points.

Tulsa's offense performed well last week against a poor USF defense. Braylon Braxton had a career day in his first win as a starter, going 20 of 27 for 302 yards.

It is uncertain whether it will be Braxton or Davis Brin who will start, since Brin's injury status has him still listed as day-to-day.

But quite honestly, it will probably be Braxton, since there isn't any point to throwing a banged up Brin out there for one last game when there are no bowl implications. Especially with Braxton coming off a strong game.

Houston's defense confused East Carolina last week, throwing an odd man front at ECU after playing a four-man front all season. Tulsa should be prepared for that after seeing it on film, unlike with East Carolina last week.

It is the end of an era for the Tulsa-Houston series, although you never know, with the whole conference structure in college football in major flux, if the two schools will be in the same conference again after being in the same conference at times in the Missouri Valley, Conference USA, and AAC.

"We just want to go play well. Any time you get a chance to play Houston, I think if you look over the past several years, and even throughout this rivalry, you could probably throw all the records out," Montgomery said. "We're going to have to play extremely well."

It would be fitting if Tulsa ended the current era by disappointing Houston one last time. Although that may be too much to ask.