Tulsa Faces 'Big' Challenge at Memphis

Tigers pose threat on both sides of the ball with larger-than-life roster.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 11:57 am

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Sep 27, 2010 3:56 PM CDT

Grant Belcher
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

TULSA, Oklahoma – If Tulsa wants to pick up a big win on Saturday in Memphis, it better be prepared to face a big team.

The Tigers are massive across their entire two-deep roster and hold a size advantage over Tulsa at nearly every position.

Tulsa defensive end Cory Dorris, who will face a challenge in breaking through Memphis’ stout line, said he and his teammates are impressed with what they’ve seen so far.

“Memphis is a good team,” he said. “We’ve seen them on film and they’re pretty good up front.”

The Tigers’ offensive line holds an average advantage of about 40 pounds over Tulsa’s defensive front.

But Memphis’ size advantage isn’t just on the offensive line.

“They’ve got a very athletic football team, a very big football team,” TU coach Todd Graham said. “Their offensive line is huge. Defensively, big linemen and linebackers 240 or 250 pounds, and they are a very, very, very athletic team.”

Memphis’ defensive front is all 6-foot-2 or taller as well. Senior tight end Deven Onarheim stands 6-foot-8 and starting quarterback Ryan Williams, who Graham was surprised to see was just a freshman, stands 6-5.

“They’ve got 6-6, 6-5, 6-4 wideouts,” Graham said. “They always have great athletes at their skill positions.”

The question for Memphis is how well they use that size, which head coach Larry Porter hopes his experience will help answer.

Porter is in his first season as the Tigers’ coach, but he was an assistant at LSU the past four seasons and picked up on the physical style of SEC play.

“These guys are a physical team,” Graham said. “Coach Porter comes from the SEC and you can tell he has tried to instill that into his players. They are playing very physical football and playing very good defense.”

Despite Memphis’ impressive physical appearance, their record on the field has not reflected it so far this season.

Memphis has dropped games to Mississippi State and Middle Tennessee State, and dropped a 49-27 contest to mutual Conference USA opponent East Carolina, who Tulsa lost to in the opening week by two points.

But a road conference win is still a hot commodity, and Graham said his team won’t take that for granted.

“It’s pretty important,” he said. “To go on the road in conference play and win is very difficult to do, but we have to do it because we lost in the last few seconds against East Carolina, which puts us one behind right now, so we’ve got to go win.”