Golden Hurricane Kickoff Spring Practice

<p>The end of February is the start of Spring Football for The University of Tulsa football team. </p>

Tuesday, February 28th 2017, 4:33 pm

By: News On 6

Golden Hurricane Kickoff Spring Practice

The end of February is the start of Spring Football for The University of Tulsa football team. The Golden Hurricane will be on the practice field on Tuesday, February 28, for the first of 15 spring practices.

Spring drills will culminate with the Annual Spring Game on Saturday, April 8 with a start time of 11:00 a.m.

Head Coach Philip Montgomery leads the Hurricane squad into spring drills coming off of a 10-3 season and a 55-10 Miami Beach Bowl victory over Central Michigan.

"One of the great things about spring ball this year is that it's not too long ago that we were on the field getting ready to play in our bowl game, so there will be some carry-over," said Montgomery. "But, every time we start spring ball, we're going to go back to the basics, offensively and defensively. We have young guys that are vying for positions that have to know those concepts inside-and-out when you're talking about our basic schematics."

"We're excited to get on the field and figure out who this team is going to become," said Montgomery. "Every year you have to figure out what the personality of your football team will be. We've had great winter workouts, and we're excited to get back on the field to watch these guys work, run, make mistakes, learn and grow and figure out what type of team we'll be as we get into 2017."

Tulsa returns a total of 49 letterwinners, including 24 on defense, 23 on offense and two specialists. Among the returnees, the Hurricane returns 13 starters, seven on offense and six on defense, and nine other players who made at least one start in 2016.

"Obviously, we have some holes to fill with graduating players, specifically at quarterback and receiver on offense. Defensively, we'll have to fill the middle two spots on the defensive line as well as finding replacements for two linebackers and one safety," said Montgomery. "We feel good about a number of the young players vying for those positions which will make for some really solid competition this spring.

Offensively, Tulsa will be replacing all-time passing leader Dane Evans at the quarterback position, and two 2,000+ career receivers, including the school's third-all-time leading pass catcher, Keevan Lucas.

The quarterback candidates include sophomore Chad President, who missed all but one game in 2016 with an injury, but is the only signal-caller with any college game experience, red-shirt freshman Luke Skipper, sophomore Will Hefley III and junior Sam Gottsch.

Six letterwinners return to the receiving corps for the Hurricane. Junior Justin Hobbs is Tulsa's leading returning receiver with 685 yards and four TDs on 50 receptions last year, while sophomore Keenen Johnson had had 30 receptions for 305 yards as a true freshman in 2016. Other returning letterwinners to the receiving corps include seniors Nigel Carter, Bishop Louie and Brodrick Umblance and sophomore Avery Gragg.

One of two 1,000-yard rushers returns to the Tulsa lineup for the 2017 season, as D'Angelo Brewer will come into his senior season with 2,400 career rushing yards. The offensive line, which paved the way for Tulsa to total eight 300+ rushing games, returns 4 of 5 starters from 2016. Blake Belcher, who was expected to return for his fifth year of eligibility, will not return in 2017 for medical reasons.

On defense, 12 different players, who saw starting time a year ago, return to a unit that showed tremendous improvement from the 2015 season thru the 2016 campaign, holding the opposition to 10 less points and 110 fewer yards than a season earlier.

Linebacker spots left vacant by the graduation of Trent Martin and Matt Linscott will have to be filled, as will the vacated tackle spots that Jerry Uwaezuoke and Hayden Carman manned a year ago. The secondary returns five players that saw starting time in 2016, as the only hole to fill is at strong safety, which was managed by Jeremy Brady.

Craig Suits, who is Tulsa's returning leader in tackles with 61 last year, returns at the WILL linebacker position.

Ends Jeremy Smith and Jesse Brubaker, who came up big for the Golden Hurricane in 2016 upfront, return for their senior seasons, and are joined by two more upperclassmen –– Frankie Davis and Myles Mouton – both of whom saw starting time last year as well.

The secondary has three returning starters at cornerback including seniors Kerwin Thomas, Keanu Hill, who will miss spring drills while still recovering from a knee injury, and sophomore Reggie Robinson. Free safety Jordan Mitchell returns as the starter, and McKinley Whitfield, who saw considerable playing time and started two games at strong safety, returns as well.

The first five days of 15 spring practice dates will take place before spring break for Tulsa. The normal weekly schedule will have Tulsa practicing on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. A Thursday, March 9 practice will be the culmination of the first five practice sessions before taking off for Spring Break (March 11-19). Tulsa will return to the practice field on Tuesday, March 21, and practice the next three weeks before completing the spring session with the Spring Game.

SPRING PRACTICE DATES

Tuesday, February 28 (Helmet Only)

Thursday, March 2

Saturday, March 4

Tuesday, March 7

Thursday, March 9

SPRING BREAK

Tuesday, March 21 (Helmet Only)

Thursday, March 23

Saturday, March 25

Tuesday, March 28

Thursday, March 30