Golden Hurricane Hope To See Growth In Year 2 Under New Coach

The Golden Hurricane held its preseason media day Monday afternoon.

Tulsa is picked fourth in the West division behind Houston, Navy, and Memphis.

It's all systems go on the offensive end for the Golden Hurricane in year two under Coach Philip Montgomery.

Quarterback Dane Evans said, "We've everything that we ran last year in at this point, and more things that Coach Monty wants to see us do."

"You've grown schematically, you've grown mature wise and physically our team looks night and day different. I'm excited to get back on the field and watch these guys perform," Montgomery said.

While the offense says they've made a lot of improvements to get better from year one to year two under Montgomery - the defense needs to improve from last year. But players say they're more familiar with their positions under Coach Young and Coach Norwoods’ system.

"We had times during in-game week last season where we threw in a new blitz on a Wednesday, like ‘hey, we're running this this week.’ And now, we have all our blitzes installed, we're refining and perfecting. I'm not trying to fix somebody else's problem, we're all playing as a unit,” said Linebacker Trent Martin.

"I would sometimes try to do too much last year because I would see something that, I would see a gap open up or something, and I was like, ‘oh, shoot, I need to make this play,’ said Linebacker Matt Linscott. “Now, I feel like we have a really good taste for the whole defensive picture as a whole."

Coach Bill Young said, "Carrying out your assignment and doing your job. Last year, we had so many guys that were trying too hard to do someone else's job that we'd end up getting hurt, and once we can convince them to do what they're supposed to do, I think we've come light years from where we were at this time last year."