Let’s take a closer look at Tulsa’s current status and break down their chances at hitting six victories this season. 

Not a whole lot went right for Tulsa last season, and the team blew a few potential wins to destroy their bowl hopes. There was a 3OT loss 43-37 to SMU, a 42-41 loss to Memphis and a 38-26 loss at Tulane, any one of which would have added a feather to the Golden Hurricane’s cap and given them a little more confidence coming into this season. Weirdly enough, if you wanted to point to one specific area that cost Tulsa last year, it was field-goal and extra-point kicking (there were three missed field goals in both the Memphis and SMU games). 

In any case, 2020 marks the sixth-year return of head coach Philip Montgomery, who is 25-37 overall in his tenure at Tulsa. The staff does have some returning talent to work with; QB Zach Smith and WR Keylon Stokes are back on offense, and LB Zaven Collins and CB Allie Green are back with the defense in 2020. The Golden Hurricane lost seven starters overall but the consensus is that they’ve still got some nice depth to replace them with. We should see a bit of a better offense and a slightly worse defense from Tulsa in 2020, so it remains to be seen how that will play out. 

Looking at the schedule, there are six wins here, but Tulsa doesn’t have much room for error. A home win versus Toledo in the opener is doable, as are wins against teams like Northwestern State, East Carolina, Arkansas State and USF, but it’s going to take a win over someone like Toledo, Tulane, SMU or Navy to finish off that bowl bid. 

Pick: Gonna go over. I’m putting quite a bit of faith into Tulsa with a six-win total, but the path is there, and if the Hurricane don’t regress too badly they’ve got a shot. Without some unexpected heroics the OK State, UCF, Houston, Cincinnati and Navy games look like penciled-in losses for Tulsa, but there’s enough meat left on the schedule to get to a half-dozen victories I think. 

2020 Tulsa Golden Hurricane Football Schedule 

Day, Date                       Opponent

Saturday, September 5        Toledo

Saturday, September 12      at Oklahoma State   

Saturday, September 19      Northwestern State

Saturday, September 26      at Arkansas State  

Saturday, October 3            at UCF 

Saturday, October 10          OPEN  

Saturday, October 17          Cincinnati 

Friday, October 23              at USF 

Friday, October 30              East Carolina 

Saturday, November 7        at Navy   

Saturday, November 14      SMU 

Saturday, November 21      Tulane 

Saturday, November 28      at Houston 

Saturday, December 5       American Championship