It was a rough season, one that the University of Tulsa football team is likely happy to put behind them, however, it ended on a very positive note on Saturday as the Golden Hurricane beat SMU, 27-24, in front of 17,159 fans at H.A. Chapman Stadium.
It was the final game for 19 Golden Hurricane seniors.
“Just really, really happy for our football team, and more importantly our seniors,” said Tulsa head coach Philip Montgomery after the game. “We talked about it all week, you know, we’re going to fill up the tank, then we’re going to empty it today. I thought they really did that.
These guys have given so much to our program.”
Tulsa finishes the season with a 3-9 record overall, 2-6 in the American Athletic Conference. SMU fails to become bowl eligible and falls to 5-7 overall, 4-4 AAC.
Tulsa outgained SMU in total offensive yards, 409-380, in a game that was a battle of defenses as much as it was forcing the other team to commit turnovers.
“We knew it was going to be a war tonight,” Montgomery said. “Any time you have a rivalry-type game, always you can throw the records out the window, it’s going to be decided in that 60 minutes. That’s what we took on our shoulders tonight.”
Following an interception by Cooper Edmiston, his fourth of the season, the Golden Hurricane had the ball on SMU’s 17-yard line. A couple plays later, Shamari Brooks carried the ball into the end zone on a 15-yard touchdown run. Tulsa took a 7-0 lead with 8:15 left in the first quarter.
Tulsa scored again with 13:06 left in the second period, on a two-yard touchdown pass from Seth Boomer to Keenen Johnson. Tulsa led 14-0.
The Golden Hurricane extended their lead to 21-0, when Corey Taylor ran for a one-yard touchdown. with 8:12 left in the second quarter.
Ke’Mon Freemon had scored on a two-yd run for SMU, to put the Mustangs on the board with 4:13 remaining in the second quarter, and at halftime the score was Tulsa 21 SMU 7.
Early in the third quarter, a Tulsa field goal attempt was blocked by the Mustangs’ Rodney Clemons. He picked up the loose ball and returned it 45 yards for an SMU touchdown. SMU cut Tulsa’s lead to seven, 21-14 with 11:15 left in the third quarter.
On the Mustangs’ next drive, a pass into the end zone by Ben Hicks was intercepted by Tulsa’s McKinley Whitfield and he ran it out to the 22-yard line. At the end of that drive, Tulsa scored on a 34-yard field goal by John Parker Romo, to take a 24-14 lead with 3:06 left in the third quarter.
“McKinley’s pick right there at the end, I knew dang good and well he wasn’t going to take a knee,” Montgomery said. “He was bringing it out, hopefully take it to the house.”
SMU answered with a 32-yard field goal by Kevin Robledo with 14:47 remaining in the fourth quarter, to once again cut Tulsa’s lead to seven, 24-17.
With 3:28 left in the fourth quarter, Romo kicked a 22-yard field goal to put Tulsa up 27-17.
SMU scored on an 11-yard touchdown pass to James Proche with 1:31 left in the fourth quarter. Tulsa held on to win 27-24.
“Those are senior guys that stepped up tonight and made big, big plays,” said Montgomery. “Just really, really happy for them and for our football team. Excited to finish it up the way we did.”