OU football: Sooners face first road test against Kevin Wilson's Golden Hurricanes
Jul. 19—Editor's Note: This is the second installment in a series looking at Oklahoma's schedule for the 2023-2024 season. The Transcript will rank all games by evaluating their significance, difficulty and entertainment value. This article previews Tulsa, which is ranked 11th among Sooner opponents in the series.
Each of Oklahoma's first three opponents are coming off a season in which they ranked among the bottom 25 in scoring defense nationally.
The Sooners will face another struggling defense when they take on Tulsa in their first road game of the season. The Golden Hurricane' defense was an enigma, allowing more rushing yards per game (207, 122nd in the country) than passing yards per game (206, 33rd in the country).
Teams took advantage by running the ball often.
Ole Miss ran the ball 51 times for 308 yards in a 35-27 win. Navy's triple option offense ran the ball 69 times for 455 yards in a 53-21 win.
SMU ran 50 run plays for 158 yards in a 45-34 win, and Temple picked up 357 yards on 53 running plays in a 27-13 win over the Golden Hurricane.
Tulsa fired head coach Phillip Montgomery late last fall and brought in former OU offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson to lead the program. Wilson hired Chris Polizzi as defensive coordinator and Steve Spurrier Jr. to lead to the offense.
Quick facts
—When and where: Saturday, Sept. 16, 2:30 p.m. at H.A. Chapman Stadium, Tulsa
—TV: ESPN or ESPN2
Last season: 5-7
—Offense: 30.6 points per game (50th)
—Defense: 33.1 points per game (117th)
All-time meetings: 28
No team has faced the Sooners more as a non-conference opponent than the Golden Hurricane. To find the last Tulsa win, you'd have to go back to 1996, when the David Rader-led Golden Hurricane faced the John Blake-led Sooners in Norman.
The Sooners had already lost their first two games of the season to TCU and San Diego State, and Tulsa was coming off a big win over a ranked Iowa team the week before. Even with Tulsa starting quarterback John Fitzgerald out due to an injury sustained the week before, his replacement threw for 277 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-24 win.
The opening line of an article by Bob Hersom of The Oklahoman from that game said, "For Tulsa, it couldn't have been better. For Oklahoma, it couldn't have been worse. For now."
That ended up being true, as the Sooners would lose five of their next eight games and miss out on a bowl game for the second-straight year.
For Tulsa, it wouldn't get much better. After picking up its first win in Norman since 1919, Tulsa won just two more games the rest of the season and also missed out on a bowl appearance.
The Sooners are 20-7-1 all-time against the Golden Hurricane. This will be the first meeting between the two schools since 2015, when Bob Stoops was the Sooners' head coach.
Overview
The Golden Hurricane lose three key contributors at linebacker including Justin Wright, who transferred to Oklahoma State.
Tulsa was very young last season with 17 players earning their first-ever start. The offense had seven first-time starters in the team's first game of the season against Wyoming.
USC-transfer linebacker Julien Simon won't provide any starting experience, but should help with the lack of depth at the position. Oklahoma State-transfer Braylin Presley has proven to be a versatile threat, playing out wide or in the backfield.
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Braylon Braxton returns after leading the Golden Hurricane' offense last season. Braxton threw for 1,133 yards and had 10 touchdowns with two interceptions in nine games as a redshirt freshman.
With the AAC losing Houston, UCF and Cincinnati to the Big 12, there's a huge void left at the top of the conference. Those three schools combined to win seven of the last 10 AAC conference championships.
Tulsa hasn't won a conference championship since 2012, when it was a member of C-USA.
Tarik Masri is the sports editor for The Transcript covering OU athletics and area sports. You can reach him by emailing tarik@normantranscript.com