2008 Woodie Awards
NT football team to tussle with Tulsa
Sean Brown
Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: SPORTS
When the Mean Green football team takes on the University of Tulsa Saturday at Fouts Field, its objective will be to show what it learned from the season opener.
NT (0-1) will look to continue its defensive improvement after a 6-45 loss to Kansas State University on Saturday.
"Right now I feel that we are better defensively in our first game of the year," head coach Todd Dodge said. "We tackled much better than we did at the beginning of our season last year. We just need to get better on third down."
The Mean Green defense will have to improve rapidly to stop the Golden Hurricane (1-0), which opened its season with a dominant victory over the University of Alabama at Birmingham Saturday, 45-22.
The Golden Hurricane gave up zero points in the second half while its offense continued to swirl, recording 601 yards in the game.
"They're a great challenge. Last year in 12 ball games, they were the No. 1-ranked offense in the nation," Dodge said. "Defensively, probably the best thing they do, they fly to the ball and get out of the blocks well."
After last week's game, Tulsa is ranked No. 7 nationally in both passing and total offense. The Golden Hurricane has a veteran staff on the turf, with nine returning starters on offense and five returning starters on defense.
Leading the Golden Hurricane offense is senior quarterback David Johnson. Johnson is ranked No. 2 nationally in passing efficiency, completing 20-for-24 passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns against UAB.
After seeing a high-powered offense in K-State, the NT defense will have a better game plan going against a similarly strong offense.
"We're going to pressure them up some more, bring more stunts, more blitzes," junior defensive tackle Joseph Miller said. "They're more of a spread-out, wide-open team. We're going to bring seven on their five and put some overloads on them and more pressure."
The pressure will be on the Mean Green as it tries to snap a nearly 40-year losing streak to the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa leads the overall series 15-6, and the last NT victory was in 1969.
"We want to show our fan base that this year's not going to be like the past couple of years, show up and get beat," Miller said. "We're trying to turn things around this year. Really, we just want to make a statement."
NT (0-1) will look to continue its defensive improvement after a 6-45 loss to Kansas State University on Saturday.
"Right now I feel that we are better defensively in our first game of the year," head coach Todd Dodge said. "We tackled much better than we did at the beginning of our season last year. We just need to get better on third down."
The Mean Green defense will have to improve rapidly to stop the Golden Hurricane (1-0), which opened its season with a dominant victory over the University of Alabama at Birmingham Saturday, 45-22.
The Golden Hurricane gave up zero points in the second half while its offense continued to swirl, recording 601 yards in the game.
"They're a great challenge. Last year in 12 ball games, they were the No. 1-ranked offense in the nation," Dodge said. "Defensively, probably the best thing they do, they fly to the ball and get out of the blocks well."
After last week's game, Tulsa is ranked No. 7 nationally in both passing and total offense. The Golden Hurricane has a veteran staff on the turf, with nine returning starters on offense and five returning starters on defense.
Leading the Golden Hurricane offense is senior quarterback David Johnson. Johnson is ranked No. 2 nationally in passing efficiency, completing 20-for-24 passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns against UAB.
After seeing a high-powered offense in K-State, the NT defense will have a better game plan going against a similarly strong offense.
"We're going to pressure them up some more, bring more stunts, more blitzes," junior defensive tackle Joseph Miller said. "They're more of a spread-out, wide-open team. We're going to bring seven on their five and put some overloads on them and more pressure."
The pressure will be on the Mean Green as it tries to snap a nearly 40-year losing streak to the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa leads the overall series 15-6, and the last NT victory was in 1969.
"We want to show our fan base that this year's not going to be like the past couple of years, show up and get beat," Miller said. "We're trying to turn things around this year. Really, we just want to make a statement."
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