Tulsa football Philip Montgomery talked about a blend of experience plus an influx of new players last week at the American Athletic Conference Media Days.

Tulsa opens the season with a road trip to Wyoming on September 3. Tulsa (7-6 last season) was picked to finish eight in the AAC.

A key to Tulsa’s success will be the play of returning quarterback Davis Brin, who started for the first time last season.

“I think the biggest thing for Davis is just letting the offense work for him, being patient, not pressing on some things,” Montgomery said. “Obviously, year two is different for a starting quarterback, to get a year underneath your belt. You’ve seen a lot of different things you’ve been in a lot of battles. You have some things to kind of draw back on. I think he is much more comfortable in what we’re doing now and what he does within that.

“I think the amount of time that he’s been able to spend not only in the film room but on the field with the receivers and  getting that timing and that work with them. I think is going to pay dividends for us and so for him. I think it’s relaxing, understanding down and distance situational things, getting us in the right play at the right time and then just executing at a high level.”

Brin had 16 interceptions last season.

“This sophomore year, I think as a young player the biggest issue you have when you get into college football and get on the field is the speed of the game and schematically what defensive coordinators try to do,” Montgomery said. “They’re trying to disguise things and that’ll happen to a young quarterback and you’ll see a hole there and you think you can get it in there and you really shouldn’t have made that throw. That’s the experience you gain as a young quarterback getting on a field like a Davis Brin.”

Brin expects significant improvement this year.

“I feel great super super comfortable, super confident just having a whole season under my belt,” Brin said. “I’ve seen a lot of looks that aren’t going to be new to me and I’m just looking forward to using that on the field to be successful.”

Another problem for the offense last year was they gained a lot yardage but didn’t score that many points, averaging only 26 points per game.

“That’s one of the things we’ve kind of started addressing, obviously,” Montgomery said. “We did that in spring ball as you go back and you break down things and seeing what we did getting up to that point and then once we got down there a lot of it just comes down to execution staying ahead of the chains being productive on first down as you go back and study and look we’ve added some wrinkles. “I think obviously with the new faces and some people that are coming in you’re going to be able to  do some different things schematically and I think it does obviously help having Davis coming back in a year.”

And a deeper, more experienced offensive line should boost point production.

“I’m really excited about that group,” Montgomery said. “Honestly, I mean we’ve got a lot of new faces in there and we’ve got to get those guys to jell and get them on the same page.

“You know how important that is. I talk about it all the time. If you if  you have an opportunity and you are winning the trenches, you always have a chance to win ball games.

“And so, we’ve got guys that got some experience coming back we got some new faces that are going to be thrown in there. But that being said, I think we have a talented group. I think we’ve got a really hungry group. That’s that’s half the battle right there.  And so I’m excited to see those guys come together as we get into fall camp.”

College football has had a flurry of players transfer. TU lost some players but they gained at least 11 transfers.

“I’m really pleased with what we were able to find and what we were able to bring in,” Montgomery said. “We we’re looking for certain things, certain skill sets and guys with a couple of years left to be able to build and grow with. I think these guys have got a lot of talent they’re going to be able to add to us.

“You know I think our biggest challenge and I think it’s one of the biggest challenges for all college football teams across the country right now is getting your teams to jell and come together with all the new faces that are in a lot of different locker rooms across the country. I think that’s going to be a key element especially here early in the season.”

Under Montgomery, TU’s talent level has gone up and that has caught the notice of the NFL. The Golden Hurricane have had a player drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft the last two years.

“You know everybody’s got dreams and everybody’s got an opportunity to go to live out those dreams,” Montgomery said. “I think we’ve just proven that with hard work and dedication and playing football the right way – leaning on each other, sacrificing for each other, don’t worry about the individual accolades and just let’s take care of each other as we work through it. I think we have proof now that that can happen right here at the University of Tulsa.”

While the program has been competitive, Tulsa doesn’t get a whole lot of respect from the media. TU was picked to come in eighth in the preseason poll.

“Well, it hasn’t changed yet so you know we let those guys pick wherever they want to pick us,” Montgomery said. “It doesn’t surprise us at this point and so I think our guys understand it and understand that it’s going to be decided on the field.

“And it and it starts week one with us but we got some veterans that have been around here like Justin wright and Anthony Goodlow. Guys that have been through these type of battles with us and so we’re going to  focus on us we’re going to focus on game one and then continuing to strive to get better each and every week.”

Oklahoma and Texas are leaving the Big 12 and Houston, Cincinnati and Central Florida are leaving the AAC for the Big 12. Some long-time rivalries will vanish.

“Our focus is always to win that week, whoever we’re playing and I look forward to obviously some of those matchups because we’ve had some great matchups, whether that’s Cincinnati or Houston or whoever,” Montgomery said. “I don’t think that adds any more to it. We’ve had some great rivalries that have really generated through this.  You think about Tulsa and Houston – they’ve been in the same conference a lot throughout the years so there’s a good strong rivalry there. I think we’ve created this thing with Cincinnati over the past seven to eight years and it’s been a great match up, kind of swinging both ways. I’m excited to step on the field with them again this year. It’s always a great competitive game and it’s always a real physical game and those are the ones that you always kind of pinpoint and are always looking forward to.”

Last year, TU played Top 10 teams like Oklahoma State and Ohio State. Will there be a dropoff in competitive levels this year?

“I mean, you go up to Wyoming,” Montgomery said. “You know Coach Bowles does an unbelievable job. I mean we’ve played them once here at home. It’s a very well-coached team, very physical team. We know we’re going to have our hands full plus they play Illinois before they play us so they get game one underneath their belt before we get up there.

“To start off the year at their place, I think it’s going to be an extremely tough game. You get the mac champion and after that you got Ole Miss in that mix where we’re on the road. And then you turn right around and you’ve got Cincinnati and Navy both. So I think our schedule just as challenging as it’s always been but we got to do it week by week game by game and that’s what our guys are focused on right now.”

Cincinnati made it to the College Football Playoff and it could signal more chances for non-Power Five schools to make it, too.

“I don’t know. I mean we’re gonna wait and see,” Montgomery said. “There’s a lot of people in a lot of rooms that are discussing all of that. As we kind of figure out where all of this is going and you see the trends and you see what it kind of looks like, you know, I think for us right now, we’ve got to be worried and focused on what we got to do this season. We’ll let the guys in those rooms kind of figure that part of it out and then as those things start coming to light and we get a little bit more information a little bit more direction. Then we’ve probably got to sit down and kind of figure out what that’s going to be.”