TU Football Notebook: Montgomery Talks Hosting No. 18 Memphis And More

Philip Montgomery addressed the media on Tuesday in his weekly press conference to discuss Tulsa’s homecoming contest vs. the undefeated Memphis Tigers.

On hosting No. 18 Memphis:

“They’ve got a strong returning group of guys from last year’s team, great leadership. They’ve got a dynamic, one of the most dynamic quarterbacks, probably, in college football right now, so our defense has a tough test in front of them. I think their defense is playing extremely well if you got to watch any of [their game against Ole Miss]. Obviously, they did a nice job against [them], especially shutting down the run and then limiting a lot of explosive plays, and so, again, it’s going to be a great test for us.”

On the game being bumped up a week:

“It’s real easy to say, ‘well, you just move your preparation up a week.’ You gotta understand from being on the road, then you come back, you gotta game plan, and get all of that part of it together and get ready for practice. We’re at a great institution. You know, for us it’s very difficult to change around class schedules and provide opportunities and windows to get in different practice schedules then what you set up at the first of the year, and so, you know, our guys, they’ve got a lot on their plate, not just from a football standpoint but from a school standpoint. So, trying to balance all of those things out and make sure that you’re getting what you need from a practice standpoint but still them being able to number one job is to be a student-athlete and student is in there, and [we’ve] gotta make sure that we’re on top of that.”

“You’ve gotta really consider, yea I can cram it all in but at what cost is it gonna happen? You know, are we gonna be not as prepared in some areas because you’re tryna cram it, or are you really gonna hurt yourself from the physical rebound of having to get back and be ready for this game a day early? And so, you’re walking that fine line of making sure that you’re getting everything in, but also trying to get back fresh and ready to play a day early. And, you know, as you get into the season, each week your body is taking more and more of a blow and it’s harder to recover. So, we’ve gotta walk that fine line and do a good job of getting them back and making sure that we have what we need.”

On Friday’s game plan:

“We’ve got to do a good job of limiting the explosive plays. I don’t think our game plan changes from that. We’ve gotta try to create turnovers.”

On playing a Friday night nationally televised game on ESPN:

“We’ve gotten to play on TV quite a bit this year which is great. But, anytime you get a national audience like that, you know, it’s great exposure for the city of Tulsa, it’s great exposure for our university and for our football program. So, we’ve got a great opponent coming in and to be able to have that and you put all those factors together and then you go out there and you can pull you off a big win, because I’m sure, I haven’t seen it, I’m sure we’re a little bit of an underdog somewhere in that line, so I like that because you got nothing to lose. You go in there and you let it all hangout.”

On Chad President playing more:

“Now that the [red]shirt’s off, it’s time for him to play, so we’re going to use him as much as we can.”

Fun fact:

Multiple Memphis coaches have Tulsa ties. 

Memphis Head Coach Justin Fuente is a Tulsa Union alum, Tigers safeties coach Brent Guy is a former TU defensive coordinator and offensive analyst Bill Blankenship was the Golden Hurricane head coach before Montgomery.

Game day info:

Date and Time: October 23 at 7:00 p.m.

TV: ESPN