Game 2: OHIO STATE v TULSA

GAME 2       OHIO STATE v TULSA

September 10, 2016                           Ohio Stadium              Columbus, OH

Tulsa Golden Hurricanes

Location: Tulsa, OK

Stadium: H.A. Chapman Stadium (30,000)

Coach: Phillip Montgomery (2^nd year): 7-7 at Tulsa/overall, 0-0 v B1G, 0-0 v OSU

Series: first meeting

Coach Meyer (5^th year): 51-4 at OSU/155-27 overall, 0-0 v Tulsa

2015 Tulsa Golden Hurricanes (6-7)(3-5) AAC         2015 Ohio State Buckeyes (12-1)(7-1)

47        Florida Atlantic                       44                    42        at Virginia Tech          24

40        at New Mexico                        21                    38        Hawaii                        0

38        at Oklahoma                           52                    20        Northern Illinois          13

24        Houston                                   38                    38        Western Michigan      12

34        Louisiana-Monroe                   24                    34        at Indiana                    27

17        at East Carolina                      30                    49        Maryland                     28

42        Memphis                                 66                    38        Penn State                   10

40        at SMU                                   31                    49        at Rutgers                     7

45        Central Florida                        30                    28        Minnesota                   14

38        at Cincinnati                            49                    28        at Illinois                       3

21        Navy                                        44                    14        Michigan State           17

45        at Tulane                                 34                    42        at Michigan                 13

52        Virginia Tech                           55                    44        Notre Dame                28

            (Independence Bowl)                                                  (Fiesta Bowl)

2016 Tulsa Golden Hurricanes (1-0)                         2016 Ohio State Buckeyes (1-0)

45        San Jose State                         10                    77        Bowling Green            10

S10      at Ohio State                                                               Tulsa

S17      North Carolina A&T                                                    at Oklahoma

S24      at Fresno State                                   

O1                                                                                           Rutgers                       

O8       SMU (Friday)                                                               Indiana

O15     at Houston                                                                   at Wisconsin

O22     Tulane                                                                         at Penn State

O29     at Memphis                                                                 Northwestern

N5        East Carolina                                                               Nebraska

N12      at Navy                                                                        at Maryland

N19      at Central Florida                                                        at Michigan State

N26      Cincinnati (Friday)                                                      Michigan

Game 2 of the young season will feature a first-ever game between the Buckeyes and the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes, who come in after a solid 45-10 victory over San Jose State.  Like the Buckeyes, Tulsa had quite a few newcomers see action last week; 13 freshmen in all. 

TULSA OFFENSE v OHIO STATE DEFENSE: Tulsa’s offense totaled 512 yards in their win against San Jose State last week; their eighth time in the last 14 games they have done so.  It all starts with experienced senior quarterback Dane Evans, who has thrown for over 8500 career passing yards and 53 touchdowns and was named to the O’Brien Award Watch List.  In the prolific Tulsa passing attack, Evans will look for his favorite target, senior WR Keevan Lucas, who was a 1000-yard receiver in 2014.  Lucas, who missed all but the first four games in 2015 with an injury, came back in style last week with six receptions for 112 yards.  Senior WR Josh Atkinson will also see time during long-yardage situations and is a handful for opposing secondaries, as he also totaled over 1000 yards receiving a year ago.  Sophomore Justin Hobbs, senior Nigel Carter, and sophomore TE Chris Minter will also figure in the passing attack.  Hobbs had 32 receptions for 551 yards a year ago and hauled in three receptions last week.  Carter played mostly on special teams until last week and has shown blazing speed in running the deep routes.  Sophomore TE Chris Minter provides a good blend of blocking and good hands, having played in all 14 games of his career and he will be making his third start at that position.  Junior RB D’Angelo Brewer went over the career 1000 yard mark last week with an impressive 164 yards and three touchdowns against San Jose State.  He comes in after a productive 2015 campaign which saw him net 837 yards on the ground for a 5.2 average and six scores.  Backing him up will be senior James Flanders, who started four games last year and also Raymond Taylor, who is a graduate transfer from Oklahoma.  Taylor had 49 yards in backup duty last week.  Senior Blake Belcher (LG) and junior Evan Plagg (RT) are Tulsa’s most experienced offensive linemen.  Belcher has played in 23 career games, started all 13 games last year, and retained his starting position throughout the spring and last week.  Plagg also has a year of starting experience under his belt.  These two will be key if Tulsa’s offensive line is able to give Evans time to throw and provide leadership in a hostile environment for sophomores Willie Wright (LT), Chandler Miller (C) and Tyler Bowling (RG).

Tulsa’s best bet against the quickness and athleticism of Ohio State’s front four and linebackers is probably to have Evans focus on short routes over the middle to try to take advantage of the pass rush and to try to stay away from the perimeter and corners Gareon Conley and Denzel Ward.  This, however, is what Bowling Green tried to do, without success, as SS Malik Hooker came up with two interceptions when Bowling Green tried to run a receiver past him.  They could also utilize some screens to the running backs and out routes to the tight end to try to negate the pass rush.  Ohio State’s front four has shown they are still difficult to run against, so Tulsa may try some zone runs to try to find seams in the defensive coverage, something that teams like Western Michigan and Penn State were able to do somewhat a year ago.

                                             QB Dane Evans

TULSA DEFENSE v OHIO STATE OFFENSE: Tulsa’s defense appears to have shown some improvement over last year.  In 2015, Tulsa had to outscore teams to get wins as the porous defense gave up 39.8 points per game and over 500 total yards per game.  This year, they’ve got some experience back and those numbers should improve.  Up front, the Golden Hurricanes will feature junior bookends Jeremy Smith and Frank Davis.  Smith started the last ten games in 2015 and had 43 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, and 2.5 sacks.  He had three stops last week in the win over San Jose State.  Davis started the final three games a year ago and had two tackles and a fumble recovery last week.  Experienced seniors Jerry Uwaezuoke and Kolton Shindelar have played well the latter part of last season and last week as well.  Uwaezuoke has 37 games under his belt, making him among the most experienced on this defense.  Shindelar made the move from tight end to DT last year and wasted no time in mastering his new position and he may also rotate over and play a DE position to try to give Tulsa a bit of extra pass rushing capability.  The Tulsa linebackers are led by senior standout Trent Martin ,who has 245 career tackles .  Last week, Martin turned in 11 stops, coming off a team-leading 104 tackles a year ago.  Senior Matt Linscott came to Tulsa as a walk-on and moved from safety to OLB last year.  He has played in 37 games and has 132 tackles to his credit.  Last year, he had five games with double-digit tackles.  Junior Craig Suits was a Freshman All-American in 2014 and has 131 career tackles .  He continued his fine play last week with four stops and one TFL.  The Golden Hurricane secondary was opportunistic last season, with ten interceptions, returning four of them for touchdowns.  They are led by junior CB Kerwin Thomas and senior Jeremy Brady.  Thomas has started the last 19 games and had two double-figure tackle games a year ago.  Brady had 71 tackles a year ago (48 solo) and was named the Defensive MVP of the Independence Bowl while collecting six solo tackles, two PBUs and an interception return for 43 yards.  Junior Keanu Hill and sophomore Jordan Mitchell figure to get the other starting nods in the Tulsa secondary.  Hill got his first start last week after transferring from Long Beach Community College, while Mitchell started three games last year and last week, while compiling 43 tackles and five PBUs in those games.

Ohio State will probably employ what worked best for them last week and against most opponents: spread the field and put their speedy playmakers, such as Dontre Wilson and Curtis Samuel in one-on-one situations with Tulsa defenders.  With J.T. Barrett’s running ability and Mike Weber’s hard running, there won’t be much the Tulsa defense can do to slow down Ohio State’s offense, as long as Ohio State’s offense does not turn the ball over.

                                            LB Trent Martin

SPECIAL TEAMS: Redford Jones, a former walk-on, was just put on scholarship, and deservedly so, as he has converted 18-of-26 FGs in his career.  Dalton Parks is also a former walk-on and was named to the Ray Guy Award watch list.  Parks averaged 45.2 yards per punt last week.

SUMMARY: Ohio State returned just six starters (three on offense, three on defense); the fewest among all 128 FBS schools.  Yet, they seem to embody the phrase; “not rebuild, but reload”.  Tulsa’s spread offense will be different from what they faced against Bowling Green, and with the loss of DT Tracy Sprinkle for the year, it will be an interesting test to see how the depth of the defensive line holds up against a quick-tempo offense.  If they can continue with the pass rush they had last week and force a couple of first-half turnovers, the game could get away from Tulsa very quickly.  The Tulsa defense, although improved from a year ago, simply does not have the speed or athleticism to cope with Ohio State’s offense over the course of the game.

                                                OHIO STATE 56, TULSA 17