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Tulsa Golden Hurricane 2016 NCAA Football Preview
TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE
American Athletic Conference – West Division
2015 Record – 6-7
ATS – 8-5
2016 MEGALOCKS Opening Power Rating Rank
West Division #4
Conference #8
2015 Recap
Tulsa managed to win more games in the first year of the Philip Montgomery era than they did in the previous two years combined. And we are still catching our breath after the crazy Independence Bowl where they gave Virginia Tech all they could handle as two TD underdogs ultimately losing 55-52.
2016 Preview
OFFENSE
Tulsa was 12th in the FBS in total offense last season and bring back a lot of the key components for 2016. QB Dane Evans had a very good season last year with over 4,000 yards passing and 25 TD passes. While it is true he loses #1 WR Kayarris Garrett, there are still plenty of weapons to choose from should he choose to MATRICULATE in the passing game, including WR Josh Atkinson who had over 1,000 yards receiving last year. And don’t forget that Keevan Lucas had 100 (!) catches for over 1,200 yards in 2014.
The running game should be solid with leading rusher from 2015 D’Angelo Brewer returning for his junior season and the offensive line features 3/5 returning starters. Overall this offense looks poised to do more damage in 2016. Two thumbs up.
DEFENSE
No matter how good your offense is, you are going to struggle to have more than six or seven wins if you cannot play a bit of defense. Tulsa was rated dead last in the AAC in total defense and next-to-last in scoring defense and rush defense. The Golden Hurricanes have a lot of experience in the defensive unit and should make some definite strides forward. Four of the top five tacklers are back including LB Matt Linscott who had five sacks in 2015 and 16 total TFL. The pass defense has to do better than allowing 297 yards per game (124th FBS) and a decent pass rush would help. We forecast an improved defense but question whether or not it can be good enough to make them division contenders.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The majority of the unit returns this season including PK Redford Jones but they were fairly disappointing overall last season and need to perform at a higher level for Tulsa to be truly competitive in the AAC.
MEGALOCKS ATS Value Rating (10) 7.0
MEGALOCKS says:
Playing the Buckeyes on the road in week two is pretty much an automatic loss, but other than that, the Golden Hurricane have a great shot at opening the season 4-1. They have three tough road conference games against Houston, Memphis and Navy, but if they can win one or two of those games, then who knows what could happen.
Overall, we give the GOLDEN HURRICANE a 7.0 ATS Value Rating (Good) this season. It is hard to trust a team with a defense that has performed so poorly recently. Having said that, the offense looks loaded and everyone other than Houston looks to be in the same area code. Tulsa gets on the watch list to start the season and may just have the minerals to make a run at the top of the division.
Want more Tulsa football?
Website
http://www.tulsahurricane.com/index.aspx?path=football
Forum
https://tulsa.forums.rivals.com/forums/tu-football.8/
http://www.scout.com/college/tulsa/forums/1269-sports-talk
News
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/tusportsextra/football/
http://bleacherreport.com/tulsa-football
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/teams/tulsa-golden-hurricane
https://twitter.com/TulsaFootball @TulsaFootball
https://twitter.com/KellyHinesTW @KellyHinesTW Kelly Hines