Tulsa rallies past No. 19 SMU in 28-24 victory

The cheap shot that could have taken Zach Smith out of the game wound up reviving Tulsa.

Smith got up to lead an incredible second half Tulsa comeback that knocked out No. 19 SMU 28-24 Saturday night at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

Tulsa (4-1, 4-0 AAC) overcame a 21-0 deficit in the first 15:02 of the game, and was down 24-7 at halftime. But instead of panicking, Tulsa took the DFO approach.

"We call it DFO - Don't freak out," said star Tulsa linebacker Zaven Collins. "Zach's got a really good head on him. He's doesn't freak out. He doesn't jump guys when they are down. You've got to handle everyone as a leader."

On Tulsa's first series of the second half, Smith was scrambling downfield five yards when SMU's Richard McBryde clearly made a vicious hit to Smith's helmet. A sure targeting call in most universes, but not in this game. Tulsa was even flagged for holding on the play, which actually was a good call.

The Golden Hurricane did recover from 2nd-and-21 on the drive, but was stopped on fourth-and-goal from inches away.

But it didn't matter. Tulsa kept chipping away. The Hurricane had gained confidence from the drive.

"The first drive of the second half was a huge drive for us," said Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery. "We came away without any points. Now, the flip side of it is, I think that drive set the tone for the rest of the half. Because I thought our line started really coming off the football. We started to get some movement. Our backs got involved. We made some good throws in there.

"At that point, our guys just felt the momentum starting to move and starting to change. Then it was, just get us back on the field, get us the football back, and let's go down and get points and chip away at it. We had plenty of time, so let's go get it done."

Tulsa finally scored on its next series, cutting the margin to 24-14 on a 1-yard touchdown run by T.K. Wilkerson with 2:51 left in the third quarter.

Then when Smith connected with a wide open Josh Johnson in the end zone for a 35-yard touchdown with 13:31 remaining in the fourth quarter, it was 24-21, and game on.

Tulsa's defense kept coming up with stops, shutting out the potent Ponies in the second half. And when TU got the ball back with 4:02 remaining at its own 35-yard-line, it was time to get down to business.

Passes of 12 and 29 yards from Smith to Keylon Stokes got Tulsa in field goal range at the 24-yard-line. Then Wilkerson had runs of 14, 3 and 3 yards to set up a key 3rd-and-goal from the SMU 4.

On the play of the game, Smith rolled out and found tight end James Palmer, who caught the ball in the flat and dove for the goal line, stretching out for the score, putting Tulsa in the lead at 28-24 with 2:11 remaining.

"You can't press in situations like that," Smith said. "I knew what we had to go do. And I knew we were capable of it."

But with the potent SMU offense having plenty of clock, it was time for a big play for the Golden Hurricane defense as well.

Collins came up with it, intercepting Shane Buechele at midfield to clinch the game on a play that started at the SMU 35. With 1:29 left and SMU having only one timeout remaining, Tulsa could easily run out the clock.

"It's hard with an offense of that caliber, spotting them that many points in the first half," Collins said. "But we just looked at that as a challenge. Whenever you get down like that, you know you have to come out and shut them down in the second half."

Tulsa kept the normally explosive SMU offense, and in particular Buechele, in check. Buechele completed only 18 of his 36 passes (50 percent) for just 200 yards. An amazing feat in itself considering he averaged 322.6 yards and had a completion percentage of 66.5 percent. Buechele was only 7 of 18 for 82 yards in the second half.

Tulsa also limited explosive freshman running back Ulysses Bentley to 3.9 yards per carry, as he finished with 103 yards on 26 carries.

No matter how good a team is, you can't just give away touchdowns to start a game and expect to win. And against a team as good as SMU (7-2, 4-2), gifting points is a recipe for disaster.

Due to unforced errors, Tulsa got down 21-0. The Golden Hurricane had so looked forward to having an opportunity to show it belongs as an upper echelon team in the AAC by knocking off ranked and really good SMU. But the beginning of the game set the tone for a blowout.

Smith, who had been playing really well coming into the game, committed two early unforced turnovers that put Tulsa in a big hole and seemed to zap the energy out of the Golden Hurricane.

On Tulsa's first offensive series, Smith was on the move and had an open Corey Taylor in the flat on 3rd-and-5 from the TU 10-yard-line. But Smith air mailed the pass, and SMU's Brandon Crossley had the ball fall in his lap, coming up with the easiest pick 6 any player will ever get, returning it 18 yards for a touchdown with 10:47 left in the first quarter.

On TU's ensuing possession, Smith had the ball fly backwards out of his hand when passing, and he failed to recover the fumble. That led to a 22-yard touchdown pass by Buechele to tight end Kylen Granson, and Tulsa was down 14-0 with 8:19 remaining in the quarter.

Smith and company finally got moving on its next series, advancing to the SMU 8-yard-line with a first-and-goal. But Tulsa went backward, and Zack Long missed a 35-yard field goal.

Then SMU went down and scored another touchdown on the first play of the second quarter, a 22-yarder by Bentley, and TU was shell shocked.

The Golden Hurricane finally got on the board with 6:15 left in the second quarter, as Smith connected with Johnson on a 20-yard touchdown pass that was mostly yards after the catch by Johnson, and Tulsa was down only 21-7.

But just when it looked like things were finally going Tulsa's way, an unbelievably inopportune play put Tulsa down 24-7. The TU defense had stopped SMU, and the Mustangs, facing 4th-and-15, punted. But TU inexplicably plowed into the punter, giving SMU an automatic first down for roughing the kicker.

And of course SMU took advantage, but luckily for TU, it was only a field goal, resulting in a 24-7 deficit going into halftime.

Smith played extremely well after the early second half cheap shot to the head, completing 26 of 38 for 325 yards and three touchdowns. He was 14 of 21 for 192 yards and three touchdowns in the second half.

Stokes and Johnson both topped the 100-yard mark in receiving, with Stokes catching eight for 122 yards, and Johnson catching eight for 101 yards and two touchdowns. Wilkerson gained 84 yards in the second half on 15 carries, and finished with 97 yards on 21 carries.

The win was the first time in Tulsa football history that the Golden Hurricane have beaten two ranked teams in the same season.

"I know I had some unfortunate stuff happen at the first of the game that kind of put us behind the eight ball," Smith said. "But we battled back. We are an extremely resilient team. I can't stress that enough, how resilient we are. I couldn't be more proud of a group of guys."