Tulsa at Oklahoma Odds

Written by Jordan Haimowitz

tulsa-oklahoma-predictions-091709 This is one of the more interesting games so far this season. You have an extremely underrated team in the Tulsa Golden Hurricane who absolutely smoked Tulane and New Mexico in their first two games, both of those wins coming on the road. A 37-13 win at Tulane was followed by a 44-10 drubbing at New Mexico. The Golden Hurricane have racked up an absurd 901 total yards of offense in their first two games. This explosive Tulsa team is led by a sophomore quarterback who has taken the nation by storm, that guy is G.J. Kinne who has thrown for 521 yards and 5 touchdowns to date with no interceptions. This kid is the real deal, he can throw in the pocket as well as on the move which explains his mobility, he’s totaled 130 yards and a touchdown on the ground as well. The slue of wide receivers this team has is what really makes them so hard to stop. Damaris Jackson has caught 7 passes for 161 yards while Slick Shelly is the touchdown target catching 9 passes for 133 yards and 2 touchdowns. You add Trae Johnson and Charles Clay into that mix and you have four wide outs that can beat you from anywhere on the field. Onto the reason why the spread is what it is, Tulsa’s defense is very spotty. They have given up 535 yards of total offense and face a team Saturday that with or without Sam Bradford can score points and gain yards in bunches. The x-factor for Tulsa if they plan on winning this game and yes, they have the ability to win this game, will be their senior heavy secondary. Tulsa MUST contain this offense and get stops at key points. If they play well and hold opposing QB Landry Jones to around 25-270 yards threw the air with 2 TDs or less, Tulsa will be right there late. Current NCAA football lines show the Sooners as 17.5 point favorites over Tulsa, while the over/under sits at 58 points.

What an awful break for the Oklahoma Sooners as their Heisman Trophy winning QB, the leader of this team and no doubt NFL top 5 draft pick Sam Bradford went down with a serious injury in the first half of their season opener against BYU. They ended up losing that game at home 14-13 which makes their chances of returning to the National Championship game very slim. Coach Bob Stoops gathered his troops which came out the following weekend and took their frustration out on lowly Idaho State to the count of a 64-0 massacre. Landry Jones, Sam Bradford’s replacement for now, must realize this team has more talent on the practice squad then most teams do starters. So, work with your studs and play smart. The running back combo on this team is as good as any in the game, DeMarco Murray, Chris Brown and Ryan Broyles are three superstars that can explode and single handily take games over. The receivers are not as good as they usually are, the loss of Juaquin Iglesias to the NFL along with the nations best TE in Jermaine Gresham to a season ending injury has left this team searching for new big play guys. Adron Tennell and Brandon Caleb have not lived up the hype they both received yet. Oklahoma’s defense on the other hand have held their end of the bargain plus some. The Sooners defense is led by in my opinion next years number one overall draft pick in 6’4, 297 lb DT Gerald McCoy. This guy is a run stopping machine and can not be stopped by a single OT. You add junior DE Jeremy Beal, senior LB Keenan Clayton and senior CB Brian Jackson and you have three more guys who can make plays on any given down. What coach Stoops will need to realize is that this Tulsa team will move the ball on his star loaded defense. Golden Hurricane coach Todd Graham has a system that is bulletproof not to mention he has the best team he’s ever had to run it with a QB that is very dangerous. The x-factor will be the Linebackers for Oklahoma today, they can not allow G.J. Kinne to hurt them on the ground, he has excellent mobility, look for LB Keenan Clayton to be spying him all game long, if he is able to shake Kinne up, the Sooners will have a very successful day.

Haimo’s Hot Notes: Tulsa is 11-5 ATS in their last 16 games overall. The Oklahoma Sooners are 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games overall. As I stated above, the very first sentence in this article was this game is one of the more interesting ones in the young season. The reason for that being Tulsa has an offense that should be able to move the ball and score often against this OU defense. The Sooners have three different running backs that could torch you, that presents a problem for a Tulsa defense that isn’t that consistent.

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