Vitals
Tulsa (8-4, 5-3 CUSA) vs. Utah (7-5, 5-3 Mountain West)
Saturday Dec. 23
Forth Worth, Texas
8 PM Eastern, ESPN
Spread
Utah favored over Tulsa by 1 to 2 points
How Tulsa Got Here
By falling apart late. At one point this season the Golden Hurricanes were 7-1 with quality wins over Navy, Southern Miss, East Carolina, Memphis and UTEP. However, they lost three consecutive to Houston (27-10), Rice (41-38) and SMU (34-24) before crushing Tulane 38-3 to end the misery. This team had high hopes heading into this season but simply deflated towards the end.
How Utah Got Here
By being one of the most manic teams in D-I. They were crushed by UCLA in the opener 31-10 then won three straight over cupcakes by a margin of 131-14. They then were crushed by Boise State at home, 36-3. Somehow, they beat TCU 20-7 the next week before losing to Wyoming 31-15 and New Mexico 34-31. Appear to have righted the ship at the end, beating UNLV and Colorado state in convincing fashion, narrowly defeating Air Force and losing by just two points to BYU.
What You Absolutely Have To Know About Tulsa
Tulsa is the setting for the book/movie The Outsiders, and is also the hometown of author S.E. Hinton. The city is the hometown of Arkansas tailback Felix Jones. John Cooper once coached at Tulsa from 1977 to 1984.
What You Absolutely Have To Know About Utah
What's a ute? This was the program Urban Meyer used as a springboard to the Florida job.
What You Absolutely Have To Know About This Game
I thought this was going to be the new Army/Navy game, what gives? Navy made themselves bowl eligible this year but Bobby Ross couldn't quite hack it at Army this year. Not that either was slated to play here anyway. We could've thrown in Air Force and the Citadel and made this a postseason Tournament of Champions among the Academies, no?
Score Prediction
Tulsa 24, Utah 17
