Against Houston on Homecoming, Tulsa hopes to end its struggles

Was last Saturday morning’s 62-28 loss at Tulane also the beginning of a tremendous career by Luke Skipper?

Obviously too early to tell, but Skipper’s performance off the bench was truly a bright spot and provides hope to what has become an increasingly ominous season, which continues Saturday at 3 p.m. against Houston at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

Tulsa (1-5, 0-2 AAC) needs something to provide a spark against the Cougars, and Skipper appears to be just that. Completing 10 of 14 passes for 256 yards after coming in down 21-0 at Tulane was inspiring. He wasn’t perfect by any means. Nonetheless, he was impressive.

If Skipper provides a better passing game, then Tulsa’s already strong running game will get even better because teams will know that they won’t be able to continue to stack the box against the run. Daring Tulsa to pass will no longer be an option.

What hasn’t been inspiring for most of the season is Tulsa’s defense, which played an awful first half in New Orleans last Saturday. It just can’t get any worse than giving up touchdowns on all seven possessions in the first half.

And it wasn’t like Tulsa was playing an offensive juggernaut. Tulane’s previous best total in three major college games this season was 21 points. Tulane scored more points against Tulsa than the 56 points it had scored in the three previous games combined.

As bad as Tulsa’s defense was against Tulane, it couldn’t have helped that the Hurricane was atrocious on offense on its first three possessions. If Tulsa could have just gained some yardage and kept its defense off the field, perhaps the defense might have performed even a little better.

But getting down 21-0 caused TU coach Philip Montgomery to bench Chad President and go with Skipper. It is uncertain which quarterback will start against Houston since Montgomery will not commit to a starter as of yet.

"We'll just see how it all plays out,” he said during his weekly news conference. “I thought (Skipper) came in, did some nice things. His play is just like everybody else's, it has got to be more consistent across the board."

However, it would be the shocker of the year if Skipper doesn’t start against Houston. Quite simply, the offense was struggling, especially in the last three games, with President at quarterback.

It would also be surprising if true freshmen Shamari Brooks and Keylon Stokes don’t continue to have big roles. Brooks is a great complement to D’Angelo Brewer, and the combo gives Tulsa a strong 1-2 punch.

It would be easy to confuse Stokes with Keevan Lucas, since Stokes is wearing his brother’s number 2, and he caught a long pass last week from Skipper in his first playing time at receiver for TU. It would be something if Stokes can play like his older brother, who is tied for first in career touchdown catches at TU, second in catches, and third in career receiving yards after finishing his college career last season.

Skipper, Brooks and Stokes should help against Houston (4-1, 2-0). The Cougars are a hard team to judge, appearing to be strong in coach Major Applewhite’s first season, but they really haven’t proven anything yet.

Conference wins against SMU (4-2, D-1 wins over North Texas, Arkansas State, UConn) by 13 points and Temple (3-3) by seven points aren’t anything to write home about. The Cougars did win 19-16 at Arizona (2-2), which has only one major college victory this season, defeating 0-6 UTEP. Houston also defeated lowly Rice (1-5). The Cougars’ only loss was at a decent Texas Tech (4-1).

Defensively, Houston appears to be strong, allowing only 16.1 points per game. The Cougars held Texas Tech to 27 points (27-24 loss), which is good considering Texas Tech averages 50 points per game in its three other D-1 games.

Offensively, Houston’s average of 25.8 points per game is nothing special. Their quarterbacks, Kyle Allen and Kyle Postma, have combined for an amazing 73 percent completion percentage while throwing mostly dinks. They combine to average only 9.6 yards per completion. Houston averages 264 yards though the air.

The Cougars’ running game averages a decent 165 yards, with Duke Catalon leading the way with 359 yards and a 5.4 average per carry.

Considering Tulsa is last in rushing yards allowed among 129 D-1 teams (347.8 yards per game), and is last in defensive passing efficiency allowed, the Golden Hurricane will have their work cut out for them whoever they play.

So what can be done about Tulsa’s defense?

Injuries on the defensive line, especially at defensive tackle, have hurt the Golden Hurricane. However, their linebackers have been mostly healthy and haven’t been making plays. Losing Jordan Mitchell to injury has hurt the safeties, but they haven’t stood out, either.

Mentioning tackle totals is meaningless since somebody has to make the tackles, no matter how far downfield they are made.

Tulsa has some good players on defense, but not enough so far this season.

If there are any players currently redshirting who Montgomery thinks will help, he will have to strongly consider pulling their redshirts and playing them during the second half of the season.

Because of last week’s lack of intensity on defense, it is time to identify and reward the players who want to play.

Any more defensive performances like the one against Tulane would be too depressing to even contemplate.

Knowing that the defense cannot play worse than it did against Tulane, everything for the rest of the season is likely to get better. Hopefully for TU, the low point of the season was the way the Tulane game started.

It will be truly interesting to see how Tulsa responds.