TU Football Notebook: Saturday Scrimmages, Upcoming Spring Game

The Tulsa football team had practice No. 11 of spring drills on Saturday morning with a 153-play scrimmage.

The Tulsa offense had eight scores as Dane Evans led the first-team offense to four of those touchdowns while the Hurricane defense had an interception in the end zone and had a number of pass breakups, TFLs and quarterback sacks.

Golden Hurricane Head Coach Philip Montgomery was generally pleased with today’s scrimmage.

“I thought our energy level was good. I liked the way we initially came out and started offensively. I thought our tempo was good early. I thought it obviously lacked there late. We got about what we wanted out of the scrimmage,” said Montgomery. “I thought our defense especially in the second part of it, did a nice job with a bunch of three-and-outs. Offensively, we had some big plays in there. We've got to be more consistent in the run game. Our quarterbacks overall I thought were OK. I thought Dane played pretty well. Some of our younger guys from a decision-making standpoint have to do a better job.”

Evans took the offense down the field 75 yards in 14 plays on the opening drive as James Flanders ran the final two yards for the TD. On Evans’ next two possessions, he threw a 27-yard TD pass to Brodrick Umblance, capping a nine-play, 70-yard drive, and guided the offense on a three-yard, 70-yard scoring drive on his next possession. The culmination of that drive came on a 28-yard TD toss to Bishop Louie after a Ramadi Warren 42-yard run put the offense on the 28-yard line.

The senior Evans also guided the Tulsa offense on another 70-yard scoring drive, in six plays. Evans’ 40-yard pass to Bishop Louie set up a five-yard D’Angelo Brewer TD run.

Back-up quarterbacks Chad President, Ryan Rubley and Sam Gottsch also led the offense to scores. President and Rubley combined for a 19-play, 75-yard drive that was capped by a Warren one-yard scoring run.

President had a six-yard TD run to cap a seven-play, 70-yard drive after completing a 41-yard pass to Justin Hobbs to put the offense at the six-yard line. Hobbs was also the recipient of a 67-yard score on a pass from Rubley that capped a three-play, 70-yard scoring drive.

The final offensive touchdown of the game came on a Rowdy Simon three-yard run after a 62-yard pass play from the combination of walk-ons Sam Gottsch to David Snelling.

Evans finished the scrimmage by completing 11-of-17 passes for 159 yards and two TDs while Chad President completed 15-of-19 passes for 130 yards and one interception and Ryan Rubley completed 14-of-20 passes for 127 yards and one touchdown.

With veteran receivers Keevan Lucas and Josh Atkinson sitting out this spring to recover from injuries, a young receiving corps has received plenty of repetitions through the spring.

On Saturday, sophomore Justin Hobbs caught five passes for 128 yards and a 67-yard touchdown, while third-year juniors Bishop Louie had a game-high nine catches for 127 yards and one TD and Brodrick Umblance had two receptions for 42 yards and a touchdown. Red-shirt freshman walk-on David Snelling caught four passes for 74 yards.

The running game saw Brewer leading the way with 105 yards and one TD on 23 carries while sophomore Ramadi Warren rushed 13 times for 77 yards and one TD and junior Rowdy Simon gained 69 yards and one touchdown on 19 rushes.

The Tulsa defense had 10 tackles for lost yardage, including four quarterback sacks, three pass break-ups and one interception. Sophomore safety J.R. Reed intercepted a Chad President pass, from the 19-yard line, in the end zone to stop a potential 70-yard touchdown drive.

Tulsa will be back on the field Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The Annual Spring Game takes place next Saturday beginning at 11:00 a.m. at H.A. Chapman Stadium. There is no admission fee to the Spring Game.