Tre Lamb Talks Big, But Can Tulsa Back It Up Against the Big 12?

It’s not often that I pay attention to anything that goes on in a group of six conference outside of realignment talk. But when a head coach calls out the Big 12, then you no longer have my curiosity; you now have my full attention.

Last week at American Conference (or whatever the hell they call it now) media days, Tulsa head coach Tre Lamb had plenty to say about some schools in the Big 12.

“We’ve got money in the bank,” Lamb said. “We’ve got NIL. We’ve got rev share. There’s no reason we can’t compete with the Oklahoma States and Kansas States of the world.”

That is quite a strong recruiting pitch to call out two schools in the Big 12 who have had success over the years. I get it, a new, young head coach trying to make a splash early on to get people excited. But at the same time, this is coming from a guy who has never played or coached at the FBS level before.

It’s not like we are talking about Boise State here; it’s Tulsa. Prior to writing about this, I had almost forgotten that they are called the Golden Hurricane. It makes sense that I would forget something like that because when you look at the recent history of Tulsa football, it’s forgettable to say the least.

They are on their third head coach in the last five years and have just two bowl appearances since 2017. And in the last eight years, their highest win total in a season is seven, and that only happened once (2021).

By no means am I wishing ill will on Tulsa, but this is a program that has done next to nothing over the last ten years. In fact, college football is better when we can have a group of six schools exceed expectations and burst onto the national scene.

But when you have a young head coach running his mouth before he has even coached a down of football at his current school, that’s where I have an issue. Maybe Tre Lamb should win some games first before he starts taking shots at schools in the Big 12.

And let’s be real here, Tulsa is a stepping stone job, not a destination, unlike Oklahoma State and Kansas State.