Tulsa played in the American Athletic Conference championship game and came within two points of beating an Southeastern Conference opponent in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth on New Year’s Eve.

The Golden Hurricane (6-3) fell to Mississippi State 26-28 after they failed to recover an onside kick attempt late in the game.

Tulsa played without All-American linebacker Zaven Collins, who will forego his senior year to enter the NFL Draft.

Collins was named to the first-team Associated Press All-America team. The last first-team AP All-American for Tulsa was offensive lineman Jerry Ostroski in 1991.

Collins earned the award for the nation’s top defensive player when he was named the 2020 Bronko Nagurski Trophy award-winner.

 Collins was unanimously chosen as the American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first player in league history to earn unanimous player-of-the-year honors, and also receiving unanimous first-team all-AAC accolades.

The bowl game ended with a black eye for both MSU and TU as players got into a big fight during the traditional hand shake period. The video went viral and drew criticism across the nation.

“There is no place in the game of football or our program for the actions that occurred after Thursday’s bowl game,” said TU coach Philip Montgomery. “It is not who we are. It is not part of our culture. It will not be tolerated. I’m sick about this ending to what was an otherwise incredible season for a talented team.”

The cause of the fight was not apparent. The AAC and TU are investigating what happened.

“Regardless of cause or the outcome of any investigations, we are extremely disappointed by the actions that followed Thursday’s bowl game,” said TU Interim Athletic Director Rick Dickson. “Be assured this incident is being thoroughly reviewed and the appropriate disciplinary measures will be taken. 

“The behavior did not reflect the TU values we seek to instill in future leaders. I apologize to the loyal alumni and fans who witnessed such a troubling end to an otherwise successful season.”

Mississippi State coach Mike Leach said after the game that he did not know what caused the fight.

“All of a sudden there was a mosh pit out there,” said Leach. “During warmups there was a group of their guys that circled around our warmup and were talking. I really don’t know. I haven’t seen enough film to let us off the hook on this thing by any stretch. We haven’t had any trouble of that sort of thing all season. We haven’t had any trouble with that. I don’t know if they had or not and I don’t know where the basis of that was.”

“I wasn’t really a part of it. I was on the outside and caught the tail end of it and didn’t see the roots on it,” said MSU wide receiver Austin Williams. “I hate that it takes away from our first bowl win in a few years. I hate that it was negative publicity for the teams that played really hard today.”

Tulsa out-gained the MSU 484 to 271 in total offense, as the Hurricane gained 347 yards via the air and 137 rushing yards. The Hurricane defense held the Bulldogs to 123 yards on the ground and 148 passing yards. Zach Smith finished the game with 347 yards on 26-of-46 passing, while wide receiver Keylon Stokes with yards and one TD and JuanCarlos Santana with 112 yards led the way in the passing game. Corey Taylor II had a game-high 85 rushing yards and one TD.

Cristian Williams was named Tulsa’s Game MVP, as he totaled 7 tackles and one pass breakup. The Hurricane defense held MSU to 109 total yards below its season average.

How does the future look for TU after an impressive season under the dark shadow of the coronavirus pandemic?

“Obviously, we go back to work,” said Montgomery. “Our team is built in the offseason. We’re a physical group. We’re going to run the football. We’re going to be able to be explosive doing other things. Defensively guys just continue to keep stepping up. We’re a good tackling team. We’re a good coverage team. We get pressure on the quarterback.

We’ve got to continue to build on that. From start to finish this group has just had a belief about them. We’ve got to continue to do that in the offseason, continue to keep raising the standard and raising the bar and continue to improve because we play in a great conference. It’s going to be competitive every week and our schedule’s going to always be tough. We’ve got to continue to get better. We’ve got a bunch of guys that are growing up right now and will continue to grow up as we push our way through.”