Whether you’re in the stadium or sitting at home, it’s likely there won’t be many people around you while watching college football this fall. Saturday in Stillwater, the Oklahoma State Cowboys defeated the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, 16-7, in front of only 14,500 fans.

Boone Pickens Stadium has a seating capacity of 55,509, but due to COVID-19 guidelines, a limited number of tickets were sold for a game that last year drew 28,612 at Tulsa’s H.A. Chapman Stadium. In 2017, the last time these two teams played in Stillwater, the game drew a sellout-plus crowd of 56,790.

 “I’m very proud of our football team,” Tulsa head coach Philip Montgomery said after the game. “I thought our defense had a tremendous game plan, and had a great game. Offensively, we’ve got some work to do.”

Tulsa had plenty of opportunities to win this game, but made too many mistakes and racked up too many penalties. TU was flagged for 15 penalties (120 yards). Many of the Golden Hurricane penalties were not called on execution plays, but rather due to a lack of concentration. TU was flagged for two delay of game penalties and four false start penalties in the game. OSU committed eight penalties for 68 yards.

 “You know, we hurt ourselves with too many unforced penalties,” Montgomery said. “We had too many penalties as a team today. Some of that is first game stuff, that we’ve got to get corrected. We’re going to learn an awful lot off of this tape.”

Golden Hurricane quarterback Zach Smith completed 18-of-28 passes for 164 yards, while TU amassed a total of 275 offensive yards. Tulsa’s leading rusher was Deneric Prince with 14 carries for 82 yards. Tulsa had the ball for 29:27 of game time while the Cowboys’ time of possession was 30:33.

OSU used three quarterbacks in the game and totaled 287 yards of offense. Running back Chuba Hubbard carried the ball 27 times for 93 yards.

Although the time of possession and total yardage was similar between the two teams, OSU executed better on offense and played a tight defense.

I appreciated Tulsa’s aggressiveness in attempting to go for a first down on fourth-and-short-yardage situations four times in the game, however, they were only successful on one of those attempts.

 “At times, we made some big plays and had some explosive runs in there; we just didn’t put things away when we had opportunities,” Montgomery said. “You got to convert when you’re down in the red zone, you have to make those opportunities count when they happen and finish them with touchdowns.”

The Golden Hurricane will visit Arkansas State on Saturday, with a kickoff set for 2:30 p.m.

DICKSON RETURNS TO TU

Tulsa native, Rick Dickson, has returned as interim Director of Athletics at the University of Tulsa. Dickson’s career includes five years as Athletic Director at Tulsa from 1990 to 1994 before leading athletic programs at Washington State University (1994-2000) and Tulane University (2000-2015). Programs under Dickson’s leadership saw dozens of conference championships and scores well above the national average in the NCAA’s Academic Performance Rates.

“We are thrilled to have someone of Rick’s caliber during this transition to lead our student-athletes and Athletics Department,” TU interim president Janet Levit said in a statement released by the university. “His rich history with our university and community gives him the tools to hit the ground running in support of our student-athletes, coaches, trainers and staff.”

Dickson attended Tulsa’s Bishop Kelley High School and played football for the Golden Hurricane before graduating from TU in 1977. His wife, Brenda, graduated from TU in 1979.

“Our love for this university and the City of Tulsa runs deep,” he said. “I look forward to working with everyone in the department re-energizing the commitment to achieve our goals, on the athletic field and in the classroom, and the community.”

Dickson retired from college athletics in 2016 and formed R.P. Dickson Consulting LLC, which has assisted many universities with multiple projects including Title IX reviews, departmental organization, fundraising and marketing campaigns, and facility development.

In 2019, he accepted a year-long role as the CFP New Orleans ambassador, serving the Extra Yards for Teachers Campaign that supports public school teachers of New Orleans.

Dickson replaces Derrick Gragg, who led Tulsa athletics since 2013 and announced in August he was leaving TU for a position at the NCAA as senior vice president for inclusion, education and community engagement.

Kickoff for TU at UCF

The American Athletic Conference opener for the Tulsa Golden Hurricane at No 13-ranked UCF for October 3 will have a start time of 6:30 p.m.

The game will be aired on ESPN2.