Grading Tulsa's Win Over Central Arkansas

Originally Published: Sep 26, 2010 3:54 PM CDT

Bobby Lewis
Oklahoma Sports Mobile Journalist

TULSA, Oklahoma – There weren’t many similarities between the Golden Hurricane team we saw struggle on the field in Stillwater and the one that dominated Central Arkansas at home Saturday night. There is a big difference in talent across the board between the Cowboys and Bears, don’t get me wrong, but the execution was crisper, cleaner and more effective for Tulsa (2-2/0-1) in its beatdown of the Bears.

OFFENSE: A-
Not a poor effort in the bunch. Every Golden Hurricane player who touched the football made plays on Saturday. The rushing attack was the best it’s been since the 2008 GMAC Bowl.

Tulsa rushed for 307 yards, the most since that postseason win over Ball State. Sophomore bruiser Alex Singleton led the way with 93 yards rushing on just a dozen carries. He entered the game with 109 total yards on the ground in his previous three games combined.

G.J. Kinne also was able to hit ten different receivers on the night. That ties the highest total of unique receivers in a game this season (ECU). Kinne made some history Saturday night as well. The junior quarterback moved past Ronnie Morris (1950-52) on the all-time career passing yards list at Tulsa. Kinne’s 232 yards against the Bears pushed his career mark to 3,938 yards.

DEFENSE: A
The same unit that gave up 722 total yards to the Pokes the week before only allowed 319 to Central Arkansas. The main reason was the dominant play from the defensive line.

Tyrunn Walker and Odrick Ray were a two-man wrecking crew in the first half. The duo accounted for 3.5 of Tulsa’s six tackles for loss and shut down the running game completely. The Bears finished the night with 162 yards rushing, but 117 of that came in the second half when the game was out of reach.

Walker said after the game that his coaches challenged the team to have more fun and stop treating football like a job. He added that the defensive linemen are the best athletes on the team and that they needed to start showing it if they wanted to win a conference title.

One injury to keep an eye on is the heart and soul of the secondary, Charles Davis. The senior defensive back looked to have injured his right knee in the second half against the Bears. In his postgame comments, head coach Todd Graham said he wasn’t sure how bad the injury was.

SPECIAL TEAMS: A
For the first time this season, the special teams wasn’t the star of the game for Tulsa. That’s not a knock on that unit, but a testament to how well the defense played.

Tulsa didn’t have a ton of chances to return kicks because the Bears only scored twice. But, the Golden Hurricane was able to spread around the return duties a bit against Central Arkansas.

Damaris Johnson picked up 27 return yards in his three opportunities, and freshmen Marco Nelson (1 – 26 yards) and Thomas Roberson (1 – 4 yards) did well in their brief chances in the return game.

Kevin Fitzpatrick was 2-for-2 on field goals. He made a 47 yarder and 31 yarder against the Bears.

Central Arkansas managed 108 yards on six kickoff returns, an average of 18 yards per try.