There is a feeling that this Golden Hurricane team has a chance to be good. Really good.

When you are good enough to feel like you squandered a great chance and a second half lead against Oklahoma State, that says something.

Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery believes this year will be different than the last two years.

“I think we have a dang good football team, I really do,” Montgomery said after the OSU game. “I think we’re young, but we’re starting to really come together.”

Tulsa (1-2) will go a long ways to finding out just how good it is this week when it hosts Wyoming at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

The game is perhaps the most pivotal game of the season. A win and TU is 2-2 and goes into conference play with confidence, heading into a tough conference schedule. A loss and a 1-3 record is extremely hard to overcome.

Although the Wyoming game is a challenging contest, make no mistake -- this is a game that Tulsa should win. If Tulsa is going to have the season it should have, it has to win this game. Period.

Reasons for the optimism are many. It starts with the offense, and with Zach Smith at the helm this season, TU’s offense has the look of team that can have a winning season. Players are making plays again. Players like Keylon Stokes and Sam Crawford.

Not enough plays so far. But Tulsa suffered two years of offensive ineptitude, and the result was five wins over that span. Even with the defense playing well last season, the offense was so poor that TU could manage only a 3-9 season.

Smith looks like a big time quarterback. He’s got the size, the arm, and big game experience. Receivers are making plays for him.

Tulsa is averaging 221.3 yards passing per game this season, compared with 177.1 in 2018. Smith is completing 63.5 percent of his passes and has a healthy 7.8 average per pass. Last year, TU completed 53.9 percent and averaged 6.85 yards per passing attempt.

And Smith has probably just scratched the surface. Shaking off nearly two years of rust, Smith appears to be getting better every week. He can make every throw, and has a laser arm. And even though he isn’t the most mobile quarterback around, he seems to be improving his pocket presence and mobility.

Crawford and Stokes are stepping up their games. Crawford leads Tulsa with 17 catches for 241 yards, while Stokes has 15 catches for 209 yards. Both look like they will have breakout seasons.

The running game should keep improving. Shamari Brooks is coming off a 107-yard game. The young offensive line is blocking better, but still is in need of better discipline in committing penalties.

Beating Wyoming is no gimmie. The Cowboys are 3-0, and do have a good 37-31 home win against SEC middling school Missouri (8-5 in 2018, 2-1 in 2019). That looks impressive, but when further examined, it is not awe-inspiring. Bet the farm Mizzou doesn’t lose that game in Columbia. The Tigers won 40-13 in the Show-Me state last year.

Besides Missouri being average, the game was in Laramie, Wyoming. Elevation 7,220 feet. That is well over a mile-high. Altitude games are traditionally very difficult on teams. Teams not used to playing in thin air often struggle. If Tulsa was playing the game Saturday in Wyoming, the outlook for the game would be completely different.

Wyoming (6-6, 4-4 MWC in 2018) is coming off a 21-16 home victory over 1-2 Idaho, an FCS school that finished 4-7 last season. To say that is unimpressive is an understatement.

The previous week, Wyoming won 23-14 at Texas State. An 0-3 Texas State team that was 3-9 last year.