Tulsa Golden Hurricane: 2022 Year In Review

[acewulf]

 

After an undefeated 2021 campaign that ended with Tulsa winning the inaugural SimFBA National Championship, expectations for the Tulsa squad were sky high. The team lost some major names to the NFL, but the roster was still very talented and preseason expectations still left fans and national media alike to think that Tulsa would still be a force for the 2022 season. Growing pains and meshing of some new faces on the team led to Tulsa finishing with an over 5-7 record on the season. There is no reason to panic however as the Tulsa Golden Hurricane team is still poised to look really strong for the 2023 season with some key returners which should hopefully keep things a bit more consistent for the Golden Hurricane squad.

 

 

1. The Season

Week	Opponent	Result	Score
1	@Oklahoma	L	13-40
2	Wake Forest	L	24-28
3	@Alabama	L	24-55
4	@Temple	L	10-14
5	@Memphis	W	28-24
6	Tulane	L	17-30
7	@Navy	L	13-48
8	South Florida	W	31-17
9	Kentucky	W	33-19
10	UCF	W	33-21
11	ECU	W	20-0
12	@Houston	L	10-16

With one of the most challenging OOC schedules in the country, Tulsa had a monumental task for the 2022 season to try and replicate the magic of the National Championship season. The Golden Hurricane opened the season with 4 straight losses before winning a nail-biting game against Memphis on the road. After that, the Golden Hurricane had a much more respectable 4-3 record on the home stretch with a 4-1 at home during that time frame. 4 straight wins including a crazy fun 33-19 win over 2021 Playoff opponent Kentucky at home helped turn the tide of a bleak start. Alas, the magic ran out against Houston on the road as Tulsa fell 16-10 to barely miss bowl eligilibity.

 

Biggest Win - Kentucky (33-19)

 

This win was the sole OOC win for Tulsa this season. This was the Tulsa team that finally gelled and understood itself. Ekuale played about as well as you could have imagined and the team was on fire in the 2nd half putting up 23 points. Ekuale completed 76% off his passes with 2 TDs and no turnovers which helped the efficient Tulsa offense take care of business.

 

Biggest Loss - Navy (48-13)

 

Not going to beat around the bush, we sucked this game. No one was on the same page and we turned the ball over 4 times and had virtually no answer for the Midshipman. This is one of those games where you just scratch your head and wonder what happened.

 

Postseason

 

Tulsa was not bowl eligible, but a few guys were recognized for their seasons. The biggest one by far was Tony Sherman winning Newcomer of the Year in the AAC. Putting up a final statline of 87 catches for 877 yards and 7 TDs. This landed Tony at 8th in the AAC in receiving yards as a Freshman. Among Freshman, Sherman was 2nd in the country in receiving yards.

 

AAC Newcomer of theYear

WR - Tony Sherman

 

All-AAC 2nd Team

OLB - Steven Jenkins

K - Evan Coleman

 

All-AAC Honorable Mention

RB - Brandon Pipkins

TE - Sterling Rios

 

 

2. The Recruits

 

 

Tulsa finished last year with a top 25 class with most of the recruiting strategy building towards high potential 3 star players that filled a specific base layer of players going forward. This season Tulsa focus a bit more of their energy on star power and it paid off big time. Tulsa finished the season with the #10 overall ranked class by composite rankings which was good for #2 in the AAC second only to Tulane. One of the main focuses of the class was to stock up the trenches for the Golden Hurricane to combat a class last year that was unable to secure any offensive linemen. 7 new offensive linemen will join the Golden Hurricane on the roster next year with 3 of those being 4 star talents.

 

Offense:

Stars	Position	Name	Overall/Potential
4	QB	Cesar Chacon	C/B+
4	OT	Pankaj Gao	B/C
4	OG	Ernest Williams	B/C+
4	OT	Michael Taflinger	C/C
4	WR	Ronald Byrne	C/D
3	OT	Jeff Hawk	C/C
3	OG	Stephen Stedman	C/C+
3	OG	Douglas Moreno	C/C
3	C	Tracey Wright	C/C
3	QB	John Kramer	C/C+
3	RB	Patrick Pate	C/C
3	RB	Charles Fuelling	C/C
3	WR	Joseph Love	C/D
3	WR	Nick Carter	C/F

Offensively, Chacon takes center stage as the top scrambling QB from the class and an Elite 11 finalist, and Southwest MVP. From his drills, he seems to have been the top passing scrambler at the event and after a season of redshirting looks poised to take over for Ekuale for the starting job. The trio of Pankaj Gao, Ernest Williams, and Michael Taflinger are a great grab as they all are 4 star guys that can make an early impact for quality depth for the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa projects to start a 4 star at every OL position this upcoming season prior to fall camp. The other player of note to highlight is Ronald Byrne. The speedster out of Florida will look to add a new wrinkle to the Tulsa passing game moving forward with the other WRs that were signed are of different archetypes.

 

Defense:

Stars	Position	Name	Overall/Potential
4	SS	Fredrick Theriot	B/B
4	ILB	Jeffery Adams	C/C+
4	DE	Samuel Wiley	C/D
3	OLB	Curtis Mcgill	C/A-
3	ILB	David Wilson	C/C+
3	ILB	Stephen Mondragon	C/C-
3	DT	Jacob Diaz	C/D
3	DE	Jung Nayak	C/C
3	FS	Ricky Foster	C/C

Defensively, the highlight here is Fredrick Theriot at SS. SS was a bit of a mess for Tulsa last season as they could never really find a definitive consistent starter on the season. Theriot probably has the highest chance to start from day 1 of anyone in the class and is arguably the most talented player from this class. After Theriot, Jeffery Adams and Samuel Wiley make for some lofty additions to the Front 7 as Tulsa looks to really beef up it's core there. In addition to Adams and Wiley, the Golden Hurricane added 5 other Front 7 talents to the roster

 

Special Teams:

Stars	Position	Name	Overall/Potential
4	P	Benjamin Young	C/C
3	K	Christopher Krawczyk	C/C

Tulsa was able to secure 2 specialists for the squad moving forward with a 4 star and a 3 star at both P and K respectively. Young is the man in waiting to take over the main P job while Krawczyk will compete for the starting job as a true freshman.

 

 

3. The Future

 

With the last 2 recruiting classes coming onto the team to hopefully boost a relatively talented roster from the start, projecting who will be starting for Tulsa is a bit of a tricky bag. 3 of the biggest names on the team are coming back and are poised to help Tulsa rebound to another winning season on the plains.

 

 

The Senior Field General is back for his final season. He has Tony Sherman, newly redshirted Ben Bromley and Jordan Wilds, and a committee of RBs that can take the pressure off when needed. Ekuale is the driver of this high potential offense and with his added year of starting experience, look for him to make some major leaps. When he is on, he is cool, calm and collected and can truly take over a game. Look for his Senior season to make that jump to a more consistent threat.

 

 

Speaking of Tony Sherman, the reigning AAC Newcomer of the Year looks to improve on his impressive Freshman season. A favorite of Ekuale, Sherman should be able to find some more consistent openings with other weapons coming on board to open things up for him. On top of all of this, Sherman was an A overall player as a redshirt Freshman. Look for him to be that much more dangerous after the season he had this past year.

 

 

Joe Harris has all the talent in the world to be a top end NFL starter someday. He's a rangy Zone safety who has the highlight game against Wake under his belt where he brought down 3 INTs. Easily the best player on the Tulsa defense, look for him to be the anchor of the secondary for his upcoming Junior season. Now imagine him paired with Theriot...

 

Roster Outlook:

Going off of projected starters for the upcoming season, Tulsa looks to be a team that will return a ton of talent over the next 2 seasons.

 

Breakdown by class:

SR - 5

JR - 9

SO - 7

FR - 3

 

This layer of underclassmen is set to really propel Tulsa to those winning ways of the 2021 season.

 

Tulsa has a lot to look forward to this upcoming season and beyond. Be sure to follow along for the 2023 campaign!

[tsweezy]

2023 playoff run inbound?

[acewulf]

I would love it, but I think I am not nearly strong enough on defense. Offense maybe, but I doubt my defense will hold up