For the first time in 29 years, the University of Tulsa football team defeated a team ranked in the Top-15. In 1991, the Golden Hurricane defeated No. 15 Texas A&M 35-34, at home. Last Saturday, TU beat No. 11 Central Florida, 34-26, in Orlando.

I don’t know if this one win will drive TU to bowl eligibility this season, but it certainly was an impressive come-from-behind performance.

Tulsa trailed 16-2 after the first quarter, and the team’s offense couldn’t get anything going, with several miscues causing drive-ending turnovers. At halftime, the Knights led 23-12, but everything was about to change in the second half.

“It was a great team win, all three phases really contributed,” said Tulsa head coach Philip Montgomery. “We could not have started off any tougher than what we did with three turnovers and a safety. We put our defense in tough spots. Our team just kept grinding and grinding. The drive right before half really lit us on fire and we were able to come out in the second half and take advantage of that.”

The Golden Hurricane scored three touchdowns and one field goal in the second half, countered only by a UCF lone field goal.

Tulsa quarterback Zach Smith, should great poise throughout the game and ended up completing 17-of-29 passes for 273 yards and three touchdowns.

Tulsa evened its season record to 1-1, while UCF fell to 2-1 on the year and 1-1 in AAC play. The loss for the Knights, snapped a 21-game home winning streak. The last team to beat UCF on its home field was Tulsa, on Nov. 19, 2016, by a score of 35-20.

The Golden Hurricane is off this weekend, and will host its first home game of the season on Sat. Oct. 17, when the No. 14 Cincinnati Bearcats come to H.A. Chapman Stadium.

FORMER ORU CATCHERS MAKE NEWS

Jose Trevino, a former catcher on the ORU baseball team, was named by the Texas Rangers, the recipient of the Richard Durrett Hardest Working Man Award. Trevino was a member of the Golden Eagles from 2012 until 2014, when the Rangers selected him in the sixth round of the 2014 MLB June Amateur Draft following his junior season.

The award is named after the late Rangers beat writer Richard Durrett, who passed away in June 2014. The accolade has been presented since 2014 to the player who represents significant improvement over the previous season or seasons through hard work.

Throughout the 2020 campaign, Trevino stepped into the starting catcher role for the Rangers and pieced together a .250 batting average. The third-year pro also added a pair of home runs, eight doubles, and nine RBI in 24 games during the shortened season.

Matt Whatley, another former ORU catcher and prospect in the Rangers organization, was recently named an assistant coach of the Victory Christian School varsity baseball team.

Although Whatley was assigned to the Rangers in advance of Spring Training, he did not play this season, as minor league baseball was shut down due to the pandemic. In 2019, the Claremore native played for the Hickory Crawdads, the Rangers long season Single-A affiliate.

THE DEATH OF MINOR LEAGUE BALL

Minor league baseball isn’t exactly dead, however, the organization that ran all of the minor leagues for the past 119 years (1901-2020), has been dissolved. The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, aka. Minor League Baseball, came to an end last week, as the Professional Baseball Agreement between Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball expired on Sept. 30.

Allowing the agreement to end without signing a new contract for player development, coupled with the recent retirement of NAPBL president Pat O’Conner, clears the way for Major League Baseball to take over control of the minor league system and dictate what minor league franchises will be affiliated with which MLB teams. Plus, there is a plan in place to eliminate 42 minor league teams for the current 160 teams across the country, and add in two independent teams, bring the total to 120.

The Tulsa Drillers player development contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers is currently expired, and thus the Drillers are in limbo waiting to find out if they will still be affiliated with the Dodgers in 2021, and whether the team will still be a part of the Texas League. All indications of geographical structuring would lead us to believe, things will remain the same for the local team moving forward. More on this in coming weeks.