SB Nation college football writer Bill Connelly, who is known for his elaborate team previews each and every offseason, recently whipped up his early thoughts on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane’s upcoming 2016 campaign.
The headline is what grabs your immediate attention.
Connelly writes that Tulsa “will score on anybody” this season, hinting at yet another great year on the offensive side of the ball after an explosive debut for coach Philip Montgomery’s unit, which averaged a healthy 37.2 points per game (21st nationally) in Year 1 of his high-tempo, stretch-the-field system.
He also says that Tulsa will “allow anybody to score,” too, pointing out that the Golden Hurricane defense surrendered at least 30 points in 11 of 13 games throughout the 2015 season.
“Philip Montgomery was able to immediately boost Tulsa’s offense by about seven points per game (adjusting for opponent), and he was able to do something Morris wasn’t able to immediately do at SMU: significantly improve the win total,” wrote Connelly. “Tulsa bounced from 2-10 to 6-7, taking care of business against the bad teams on the schedule and beginning to restore the program after a devastating two-year slide.”
Tulsa allowed Oklahoma to put up 52 points early on in the season, which makes sense considering the Sooners were a playoff team. However, the Hurricane proceeded to let Memphis score 66, Cincinnati score 49, Navy score 44, and Virginia Tech score 55 before it was all said and done.
“Montgomery should be able to field a strong offense moving forward — without his own recruits in place, he was already able to bump Tulsa’s Off. S&P+ ranking to 51st — but will he be able to figure out the defensive side of the ball? When Art Briles did at Baylor, it turned the Bears from a 7-6 or 8-5 program into a Big 12 champion, but Briles’ recruiting classes don’t rank at the bottom of the conference, either, at least not anymore,” Connelly says.
“The Tulsa defense was dragged down by youth in 2015, but that won’t be a viable excuse for much longer,” he added. “The Golden Hurricane have upside on offense and experience on defense; we’ll get at least a passing glimpse at the program’s overall ceiling under Montgomery this fall.”
Connelly set Tulsa’s projected win total at 5.5, citing that Montgomery’s ceiling as a coach with the Hurricane will be decided by just how much the defense can improve before Week 1 in September.
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