The Tulsa Golden Hurricane football team may not play a full slate of 12 games this fall after their opening game with Toledo was canceled.

Toledo is a member of the Mid-America Conference and that league has postponed its football schedule until the spring.

TU and Toledo were playing a home-and-home series that started in 2017 in Ohio, with the Rockets winning 54-51. The game in Tulsa is expected to be moved to another season.

TU now has three nonconference games: a home game against Northwestern State (September 19) and road games against Oklahoma State (September 12) and Arkansas State (September 26).  The Big 12 is limiting its teams to nine conference games and one nonconference game. Oregon State canceled its game against O-State and it is very likely that the OSU-TU game will be played. 

TU opened fall camp Friday with no active coronavirus cases.

In his first year as a starter in 2019, TU quarterback Zach Smith passed for 3,279 yards with 19 touchdowns and only nine interceptions.

Tulsa’s returning running back corps has the second-highest rushing yards and rushing TD totals returning in 2020, which is second only to Clemson.

Running backs Shamari Brooks and Corey Taylor have a combined career totals of 4,190 rushing yards and 45 touchdowns. Last year, both Brooks and Taylor topped 1,000 yards in rushing.

Brooks is fifth on TU’s career rushing list with 2,700 total yards and ninth in touchdown (23). If he gets 1,217 yards this season, he would tie D’Angelo Brewer (3,917) for the best rushing record.

TU returns all of the players responsible for last season’s rushing, passing and total offense yardage. Eighty-five percent of the receiving yards returns.

Tulsa had 109 football players begin fall practice on August 7. TU returns 43 lettermen and 26 players with starting experience.

Even though Tulsa returns only four starters on defense, there are seven defensive players who have started games. Starter Jaxon Player is back on the defensive line. Linebacker Zaven Collins, safety Cristian Williams and cornerback Allie Green IV are the other returning starters. Collins is TU’s leading returning starter with 97 tackles in 2019.  Cornerback Akayleb Evans has started 14 games after sitting out in 2019 due to injury. Nose guard Tyarise Stevenson has started 21 games for Tulsa.

Right guard Chris Paul will move from right guard to right tackle on the offensive line this season. Paul has volunteered at the Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis, Read Across America, Lift Up America and at the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma.

H.A. Chapman Stadium was opened 90 years ago.  Oil man William Skelly gave $125,000 to the Stadium Fund Drive in the spring of 1930. The remaining $175,000 was raised by Tulsa businessmen who organized the Stadium Corporation of Tulsa.

The season kicked off was on October 4, 1930, as Tulsa hosted Arkansas on that date and posted a 26-6 victory. The Golden Hurricane won its first six games at the new stadium that year. Skelly Field became known as Skelly Stadium in 1964 when the stadium was enlarged to 40,235 seats. In 2007, Skelly Stadium was changed to H.A. Chapman Stadium and in 2008 the stadium went through a complete renovation.

Tulsa Football is carried on 99.5 FM KXBL Radio, the flagship radio station for the Golden Hurricane, for the fifth straight season. The Philip Montgomery Radio Call-in Show will air live on Mondays throughout the football season from 7-8 p.m. on 99.5 FM KXBL Radio.

The Philip Montgomery Television Show will air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the season at 6 p.m. on Yurview Cox Channel 3. The first show airs Sept. 8.