Scouting the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, This Weekend's Tulane Opponent

The Tulane Green Wave and the Golden Hurricane play this Saturday, September 27 in a game that will be broadcast on ESPNU starting at 3:00 p.m. CDT from Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium. It is the American Athletic Conference opener for the Wave, who comes in at 3-1 on the season. Tulane's lone loss came against 13th ranked Ole Miss on September 20, 45-10.

The 2-2 Hurricane, led by first year coach Tre Lamb, have already played a conference game, falling to Navy on September 13 in Annapolis, 42-23. Their other loss came at the hands of Conference USA's New Mexico State, 21-14. Tulsa claimed one of their biggest victories in almost three-quarters of a century, as the Golden Hurricane beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater last weekend, 19.12. It's the first time Tulsa beat Okie St there since 1951.

Tulsa Offense

The Golden Hurricane come close to splitting the difference on offense, running 49% of the time and tossing the football 51% of their possessions. When Tulsa gets into the red zone, their are deadly, scoring 80% of the time.

Tulsa's Running Game

The rushing game is led by 6-foot, 210-lb Oklahoma State transfer Dominic Richardson. The redshirt senior is averaging 110.5 yards per game, topping 146-yards against the Cowboys last weekend. Look for redshirt junior, Ajay Allen to carry the rock. He averages 5.7 YPC in his 20 attempts. Braylin Presley has carried the ball 17 times for 131 yards in his four games.

The Hurricane's Passing

Redshirt freshman quarterback Baylor Hayes has established himself as the Tulsa starter. He has completed 59 of his 90 passes for a 65.6% rate of completions. He has 542 yards in the three games he has played. Redshirt sophomore Kirk Francis could also see some action, going 33 of 54 in attempts for 318 yards.

Tulsa Defense

Teams have piled on big yardage on the Golden Hurricane D this year, averaging 353.8 yards per game against Tulsa, again pretty much splitting the difference. The Golden Hurricane is also allowing opposing teams to be successful on 3rd down almost 44% of the time.

The guy to watch defensively for Tulsa is Junior linebacker Ray Coney. Transferring from ETSU where he played for now Tulsa head coach Lamb, #0 leads the team in solo tackles with 19, assists with 30 for a total of 49 tackles, almost doubling the nearest Hurricane defender.

Hurricane Special Teams

Punter Angus Davies has a leg. He's hit an 80-yarder this year and is averaging 44.3 yards per punt in his 15 attempts.

Kicker Seth Morgan has hit 7 of his 9 field goal attempts, missing once between 40-49 yards and once beyond 50. His longest for this year is 47-yards.