TU Football Continues Practice In Preparation For Spring Game, Upcoming Season

The University of Tulsa football team is now five practices away from wrapping up spring drills and playing its first spring game under its new coaching staff led by Philip Montgomery.

The spring game will be played on Saturday, April 18, at 1:00 p.m. and the team has been working hard. “We're extremely high-paced in practice, and so when you get in game-like situations, like today, things slow down. The amount we're pressing them in practice is really going to pay-off come game time, because you're getting more rest,” said Montgomery.

As for Saturday's full-pad scrimmage, Montgomery still thinks his team has things to work on. “I didn't think our tempo was great today in the scrimmage just from the standpoint of things, like the officials setting the ball, substitutions going on and going from sideline-to-sideline. We have to do a little better job than that, but we'll see a lot of things on the tape that we'll be able to coach off of.”

The spring practices have allowed the team to see where they're at, physically and mentally, on both ends of the ball, and see what they need to work on before the upcoming season. “Defensively, I thought we got lined up better, and I thought our effort was a lot better. We had a couple of good stops and had some fourth down stops that I liked,” said Montgomery. “Offensively, we picked up some fourth downs [and] we were able to get points when we got down in the red zone, whether it was touchdowns or field goals. Anytime you get points on the board, that's a good thing. We had a couple of three-and-outs; obviously you don't like those, as you always want to get that first, first down so you can get going. Overall, I was pleased on both sides of the ball.”

The Golden Hurricane will hit the field again on Tuesday, followed by practice on April 10, 11, 14, and 17.

The spring game will be played at Chapman Stadium, and is free of charge for all that attend.