Tulsa quarterback Davis Brin is ready to build on the success and experience he has achieved for the Tulsa football team.

Brin played in only four games in his first three seasons before being named the starter last year. He responded by completing nearly 60% of his passes for 3,269 yards and 18 touchdowns last season.

Brin was outstanding against ninth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes last year. He had a career-high 428 yards and two touchdowns without one of his top receivers, sidelined with an injury. A week later, Brin completed 68 percent of his passes for 355 yards and a career-high three TDs against Arkansas State.

“I really like our quarterback room,” said Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery. “I think Coach Trahan has done a really nice job of welding those guys together. You can just tell that they’re seeing the field so much better.

“Our offense allows the quarterback quite a bit of freedom, so we need for them to be really good distributors and decision-makers and take advantage of what the defense gives them in the structure of what we do schematically.

“Right now, they’re doing that at a really good level. We have to continue doing that especially when we see different defenses and different looks. We need to have our eyes in the right spot and pull the trigger when we need to.”

Three quarterbacks wait in the wings.

Redshirt freshman Braylon Braxton (6-3, 222) played in four games as a rookie in 2021 and gained 38 rushing yards, 4.2 yards per carry and one touchdown in his role as wildcat quarterback. Braxton put up lofty passing numbers at Independence (Texas) High School, where he passed for over 6,000 yards and rushed for another 2,000-plus yards in his prep career.

Sophomore Roman Fuller (6-4, 206) came to Tulsa at mid-semester 2020 after completing his career at Decatur (Texas) High School. Fuller, who played in one game last season, came out of high school after throwing for over 9,000 yards and 90 touchdowns with a 66.4 completion percentage in his three years.

Cardell Williams (6-2, 175) enrolled in January and participated in spring drills after graduating early from Houston Westfield High School. The dual-threat quarterback helped lead his team to a 33-5 record as a three-year starter, while throwing for 7,786 yards, running for 487 yards and combining for 105 touchdowns.

On defense, six experienced linebackers return for Tulsa.

Justin Wright (6-2, 244) shared the team-lead a year ago with 82 tackles and added 5.5 TFL and one interception for a touchdown, while forcing one fumble and recovering another.

Wright will be joined by graduates Grant Sawyer (6-2, 220) and Jon-Michael Terry (6-3, 247) in the lineup.

A fifth-year player, Sawyer has played in 46 career games with eight starts and has tallied 70 tackles and 12 stops for -44 yards. Terry, who transferred from Oklahoma in the spring of 2021, played in four games and totaled eight tackles and two TFL before suffering a season-ending injury a year ago.

“When you start talking about Justin, Jon-Michael and Grant. Those guys have gotten a ton of reps and have been in starting roles. We have a lot of faith in them. They know what each other is doing and thinking and they play well off each other. They do a great job of communicating. They can all run. All three are physical and they communicate our defense in a really good way,” said Montgomery.