Tulsa Football Releases Spring Schedule

The University of Tulsa announced is spring game schedule Thursday with spring drills to begin on March 6 and the annual spring game set for April 7.

"Spring is going to be here pretty quick," said Blankenship. "We're anxious to build continuity off the season that we just had. We felt like bowl practice and leading up to the bowl game was very positive for us. We were able to red-shirt a good number of our freshmen last year, so these are guys that we're anxious to get into the mix and see how they compete."

TU will begin 2012 spring drills with seven practice sessions before spring break and eight of the allowed 15 days of spring practice following the week break.

Tulsa, which finished the 2011 campaign with an overall 8-5 record and a 7-1 Conference USA mark, returns 13 starters in 2012, including seven on defense and six on offense.

The Hurricane will look to replace some key areas on offense, including at quarterback with the graduation of G.J. Kinne, offensive line with the loss of three senior starters and tight end. Tulsa returns six starters to the offensive unit.

"Obviously, some real key battles for us are going start at the quarterback spot. We're going to have four scholarship quarterbacks in camp and several walk-ons that will compete for that spot. It's really important that gets decided this spring," said Blankenship. "We need to fill in some holes on the offensive line. We've got quite a few bodies, but we need to see who's going to step up and be the leaders there. Similarly at tight end with the loss of Clay Sears and the backups."

Defensively, Tulsa returns seven starters to the lineup. The key areas that Tulsa will need to replace is at linebacker with the loss of leading tackler Curnelius Arnick and Tyrunn Walker's slot at defensive end.

"The big keys on defense will be replacing the middle linebacker, Curnelius Arnick, and all the production that he had as a tackler. We also need to find the replacement at defensive end for Tyrunn Walker. That's a big loss," added Blankenship.

"Again, there are a lot of jobs that are open. I think another big deal is place-kicker Kevin Fitzpatrick being gone. We'll be competing for the job this spring, and who will get to compete with incoming freshman Daniel Schwartz for job in fall camp. Similarly, the deep snapper position is up for grabs and we want to continue to see Cole Way develop as our punter."

The spring will culminate with the Annual Spring Game on Saturday, April 7 at H.A. Chapman Stadium. Game time for the spring game is TBA.