Against a team that struggled against the run and excelled against the pass past year, the Hurricane relied on 305 rushing yards, its most since the 2012 Liberty Bowl.
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SAN JOSE STATE LOSES IF: Its run defense isn’t any better than a year ago, when the Spartans allowed an average of 253 yards and a total of 22 rushing touchdowns in its seven defeats. Tulsa allowed just 53 on the ground – the fewest rushing yards the Hurricane has allowed in a game since 2012.
Leading the was D’Angelo Brewer who scored three times on the ground and rushed for 164 yards while averaging 7.5 yards per carry. The lead was 38-7 at the half, and 45-7 after TU’s possession of the second half. “He’s a great decision-maker, he can see the field, gets the ball out extremely quick, so we’ve got to adjust our pass rush again”.
“We played really well last week, but I feel like we haven’t reached our potential”, Hooker said. “The big pass to Keevan kind of set the tone there in the first drive”. In the second quarter, an incredible 61-yard punt by Dalton Parks was muffed and recovered in the end zone by McKinley Whitfield. The Spartans also fumbled on the following possession after driving 47 yards, and then the Golden Hurricane turned that into a touchdown to go up 31-7.
There were not many positives in this game for the Spartans, and if we really want to look for one it might as well be Potter who completed 16 of 28 passes for 234 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Evans found Lucas 46 yards downfield on the first play, and Brewer scurried into the end zone from 38 yards two plays later with 12:02 to play in the first quarter.
San Jose State has no answer for the Tulsa offense.
Tulsa (1-0) finished the season’s opening quarter with a bang scoring 17 points in 2:38 on Redford Jones’ 34-yard field goal, Brewer’s 5-yard run and Brubaker’s interception return. Tulsa found ways to get the big play early. He threw 25 touchdowns last season and is only the third quarterback in the school’s history to exceed 4,000 passing yards in a single season.
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The 24 first-quarter points was the most for Tulsa since September 15, 2012 when it scored 28 against Nicholls State. The Hurricane ran the lead to 24-7 in the quarter when Brubaker intercepted a tipped pass and took it 24 yards for the touchdown with 0:08 left in the period.
