Tulsa searches for another win in the state of Florida

Tulsa is hoping to avoid a classic sense of letdown after losing the legitimate opportunity to beat a top 10 team last week.

After the Homecoming game against No. 8 Cincinnati was postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak at Cincinnati, Tulsa has to bounce back, and fast. The challenge is trying to defeat a talented, yet less than stellar South Florida on Friday night at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa (also home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers).

"I won’t lie to you, I was pretty mad. I got my phone and I chunked it on the floor,” said Tulsa receiver Sam Crawford, who then commented on the challenge ahead. “Nothing’s fair, but we’re ready to play."

Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery was extremely disappointed about not playing Cincy, but realizes that his team has to be prepared for anything, especially this year.

“Our guys were amped, juiced. They were in a really good mindset,” Montgomery said of TU the week of the Cincy game that was postponed just two days prior to the contest. “Who knows what would have happened against Cincinnati, but I will tell you, our guys were ready to play.”

With that being said, Montgomery is excited to be going to Tampa, and doesn’t think there will be a letdown.

“I’m not concerned about them being South Florida and them not being the number 8 team,” Montgomery said. “Our guys are just excited to actually get to go play a game again.

“You never know when that is going to get taken away from you, so we better savor every opportunity we have. Don’t take one for granted."

Other obstacles Tulsa (1-1, 1-0 AAC) has to overcome are that the Golden Hurricane has only played two games, compared with five games for USF (1-4, 0-3), and that Tulsa has had three weeks in between games two and three.

“I feel like we played game one against Oklahoma State, then we turned around and played another game one against Central Florida, and now we’re playing another game one against South Florida,” Montgomery said.

With the lack of continuity being a factor, Tulsa’s practice preparation will turn out to be critical. Also important is Tulsa’s momentum from having defeated No. 11 Central Florida 34-26 in its last game, which included outscoring UCF 29-3 over that last 31 minutes of the game.

In Tulsa’s first two games, the offense has started slow. That shouldn’t be the case this week, as USF’s defense is porous, giving up an average of 40.3 points per game in its four major college games.

The only win for the Bulls was a 27-6 win against FCS team The Citadel (0-4) in the season opener. USF lost 52-0 at No. 7 Notre Dame (4-0), 28-7 at Cincinnati (3-0), 44-24 to hapless East Carolina (1-3) and 39-37 last week at Temple (1-1).

Tulsa’s biggest physical challenge will be against USF’s offense, which has talent and is coming off a strong performance at Temple last week. USF is guided by first year coach Jeff Scott, who has impressive credentials coming from Clemson as its co-offensive coordinator.

Scott is USF’s fifth head coach in a program that only began in 1997 and started playing major college football in 2001. USF is coming off a 4-8 season that got Charlie Strong fired.

The last time Tulsa and USF played each other was in Tulsa in 2018 when TU gave up a two touchdown lead and lost in the last seconds, 25-24. In both 2018 and 2017, USF was ranked No. 23 when it played Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane lost 27-20 in Tampa in 2017, and lost 38-30 in 2014 in the only other meeting between the two schools.

Jordan McCloud, USF’s starter last season, appears to have finally won the job again this year after splitting time early with Noah Johnson and Katravis Marsh. The Bulls are averaging 184.4 yards passing this season, with McCloud averaging 149.8 of those yards.

A decent runner, McCloud rushed for 284 yards last season, but has only rushed for 14 yards on 34 carries this season. The 6-foot, 193-sophomore passed for 1,429 yards (119 per game) last season with 12 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. He has four TD passes and has been intercepted twice this season, although his completion percentage has risen from 55.4 to 64.3.

“I thought McCloud managed the game extremely well and made some timely throws,” Montgomery said of McCloud’s performance at Temple.

USF is not much of a downfield passing team, as McCloud is averaging only 6.7 yards per attempt. His top two receivers, DeVontres Dukes (6-4, 216) and Latrell Williams (5-11, 181), have 15 catches for 183 yards, and 13 catches for 159 yards, respectively.

“You look at their two receivers on the outside, they’ve done a really nice job in Williams and Dukes, and they’ve got the big tight end (Mitchell Brinkman, 6-4, 250, Sr. grad transfer, 9 catches, 116 yards) that you can’t lose track of,” Montgomery said. “So they’ve got weapons, we’ve just got to do a good job of being assignment sound and locking things down.”

At running back, Montgomery is impressed with diminutive sophomore Johnny Ford (5-5, 172), who has rushed for 265 yards on 5.6 yards per carry this season. He also has 14 catches for 126 yards. Ford had 768 yards on an impressive 6.8 average in 2018 with three catches for 78 yards, but only played four games last season, rushing for 103 yards but had 13 receptions for 149 yards.

“Ford is Ford. He is electric out of the backfield,” Montgomery said. “You put the ball in his hands, and he is jump-cutting, spinning, moving. He is difficult to tackle. And they have done a good job with him in the passing game.”

For Zaven Collins and company, the defense will be challenged. Collins is having a monster season so far with 7.5 tackles for loss, including three sacks, a safety, an interception, two pass breakups, and a quarterback hit.

On offense, with USF giving up an average of 205.2 yards per game on the ground, TU’s running game could easily get a workout. After playing stellar defenses the first two games against No. 11 ranked teams, this could be the week the ground game, led by Deneric Prince, T.K. Wilkerson and Corey Taylor, break through and have a huge game. TU is averaging 138.5 yards per game on the ground.

Quarterback Zach Smith must also be on his game, especially with receivers Keylon Stokes (10 catches, 150 yards) and Sam Crawford (8-97). Smith is averaging 219 yards per game.

Overall, Tulsa hopes it can catch a USF team before it improves too much and regains its confidence by winning games.

“This is a team that, athletically, they’ve got cats, they’ve got dudes, and they have, always,” Montgomery said of USF. “We’re going to have to play extremely well to go on the road and get a win at their place.”