The Navy Midshipmen and Tulsa Golden Hurricane clash Saturday in a wee 6 college football contest from Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Tulsa is fresh off a matchup versus Cincinnati. The Hurricane fell by 10 points in that one. As for the Midshipmen, they just finished up against Air Force. In that one Navy lost a tough one by three points. Check back all season long for free college football picks at Sports Chat Place.
Tulsa had a tough 40-37 overtime loss to Wyoming in their opener this year, but managed to power out a 38-35 win over Northern Illinois in the next game. The third outing against Jacksonville State was a 54-17 win, then came a 35-27 loss to Mississippi.
In the Cincinnati matchup, the Hurricane took a 24-14 deficit into halftime and eventually lost 31-21. QB Davis Brin managed 237 yards and two turnovers. Deneric Prince rushed 18 times for 71 yards and two scores, while Keylon Stokes posted six catches for 106 yards.
Over on the Navy side, they kicked off their year with a 14-7 loss to Delaware. The Midshipmen were then blown out by Memphis 37-13 in the second game. Navy was able to get their first win of the year in game three, taking out East Carolina 23-20 in overtime.
Matched up against Air Force, Navy couldn’t get into the end zone until the fourth quarter and ended up with a 13-10 loss. QB Tai Lavatai went 11-of-20 for 129 yards, and also led the rush with 34 yards. Jayden Umbarger caught four balls for 71 yards to top the receivers.
PICK: I’m probably sticking with Tulsa but not touching it. The Hurricane are going to need to get their offense going in this one. Tulsa put up just 285 total yards and 3.4 yards per play against Cincinnati. The good news is that the Hurricane posted 23 first downs and went a decent 10-of-19 on third down tries; the end production just wasn’t there.
As for Navy, they had another tepid offensive game themselves. The Midshipmen finished with 243 yards and 13 first downs in the Air Force loss but were still very close to a win. All things considered though, I don’t think the Midshipmen will have the offensive push to get a cover here—should be a good matchup though.