TU Loses Receiver For Season Due To Knee Injury Ahead Of Matchup With Arkansas State

Tulsa receiver Jeremiah Ballard will miss the rest of the season after a knee injury on special teams in the opener that will require surgery.

This week, the Golden Hurricane are on the road at Arkansas State.

A win in the season opener is a great start for TU, but now a new challenge lies ahead on the road with Arkansas State. This is a team that plays with higher intensity and a faster pace.

"So to me, this is going to be a tough game again, looking forward to the week of prep and just looking forward to going over and seeing them in week two on the road, as we start this season. How good are we on the road? We'll see if we're strong enough and mature enough to go on the road and play competitive football and play winning football on the road. So great opportunity. Like our start, like the way we practice, but we got a lot of work to do with the young team,” said head coach Kevin Wilson.

News On 6's Jeremie Poplin, also the TU sideline reporter, weighed in on the matchup:

“Kevin Wilson said today that they're going to challenge this team's maturity level with going on the road for the first time. It presents a whole new list of challenges. There are more distractions on the road, obviously, than there are at home. That leads to Kevin also saying that he needs this team to be more consistent, not only offensively, and defensively, but especially on special teams, where Tulsa gave up several points in the kicking game last Thursday.

Kickoff is at 6 p.m. on Saturday.