Tulsa vs. Nicholls State Preview, Prediction

I'm not going to sit here and lie to you fine folks; this game is going to be a blowout of epic proportion.

Tulsa comes in at 1-1, having lost the season-opener at Iowa State, then rebounding last week by thumping Tulane. Nicholls State comes from the Southland Conference of FCS football, where they get dump trucked weekly by the better teams at that level. The Colonels are coming off a 1-10 season, where their only win came against an NAIA team and they gave up an average of 38 points per loss. After their season-opener at Oregon State got postponed, Nicholls opened up the 2012 campaign last week, losing 9-3 to South Alabama.

Matchup:

From the Hurricane's perspective, this game will have everything to do with improving and almost nothing to do with Nicholls State. TU has Fresno State coming to town next week, and follow that up with its C-USA road-opener at UAB. That means that this week's game will be Hurricane's final tune-up game before real competition begins. Saturday will be the time to work out the kinks and round into mid-season form by next Saturday.

One player to watch will be Willie Carter. Carter caught 61 passes for 868 yards and seven touchdowns last season. He also scored two rushing touchdowns. Through two games this season, Carter only has three grabs and hasn't found the end zone yet. Carter and quarterback Cody Green don't seem to be on the same page, certainly not like he and G.J. Kinne were. For Tulsa to reach its offensive potential, Carter must be involved way more than he is now.

Prediction:

TU looked like an entirely different team against Tulane than it did against Iowa State. The offense was both sharp and explosive and the Hurricane cut down on the mistakes. That should be the goal for this week: keep fine-tuning things.

I'll take Tulsa, 63-14