Memphis committed several mistakes and the Tulsa defense played exceptionally well, as the Golden Hurricane came away with a 35-29 victory Saturday night in front of a Homecoming crowd of 17,593 fans at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

“First of all, Memphis, is a very talented team,” said Tulsa head coach Philip Montgomery after the game.

“I was proud of our full team today. Offense, defense, special teams.”

The Tigers outpaced the home team on offense, with 614 total yards, to Tulsa’s 417, but Memphis drives were halted many times by turnovers and missed field goal opportunities.

I’ve often talked about how I don’t understand how college football teams can’t find decent kickers, and why they don’t put more emphasis on that position. Surely, they could recruit more star high school soccer players with a strong leg, who can kick the ball through the uprights. Memphis used three kickers in the game. Noah Grant only booted the kickoffs, averaging 64 yards. While David Kemp missed two field goals (36 and 53 yards) and Joe Doyle missed a 48-yarder. Kemp also missed one point-after-touchdown.

The Golden Hurricane defense recovered a Memphis fumble, and intercepted two passes, and Montgomery said he was happy they way his defense played, especially with a couple key players out with injuries, including Kendarin Ray who was injured during the game.

“Again, we don’t like to make excuses, but we got a lot of guys banged up already this season with the schedule that we played and everything else, and so guys just continuing to step up and make plays for us, you know, that’s been our calling card the last couple years,” Montgomery said.

“Got to continue to do that. Young guys got to step on the field and the standard can’t drop. It’s got to continue to raise, and those guys are doing a good job of that.”

Shamari Brooks led the TU offense with a game-high 126 rushing yards and two touchdowns, while quarterback Davis Brin completed 11-of-21 passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns.

Montgomery said after the game that Brooks ran just like he knows he can run.

“He runs with a lot of passion about him,” said Montgomery. “He was in and out of breaks, trying to run through tackles. Made some big runs for us there, especially late. I mean, I thought he did a fantastic job.”

Brooks was asked how it feels to successfully bounce back from the Houston game?

“Feels good, I mean, it just shows the age of our team,” Brooks said. “We’re mature guys. We’re not worried about the last week.

“Moving past to the next week. That just shows a lot of maturity on our side and that we don’t let one loss define anything at all.”

With the win, Tulsa improved to 2-4 overall and 1-1 in American Athletic Conference play, while Memphis fell to 3-3 and 0-2 in the league.

The Golden Hurricane travels to Tampa, Fla., this week to face the South Florida Bulls at Raymond James Stadium.

Kickoff time is 11 a.m. (CDT). Tulsa returns home to on Friday night, October 29, after a bye week, to face the Navy Midshipmen.