No. 4 Oklahoma travels to Skelly Field for Tulsa game Friday night at 7 p.m.
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- Tulsa's no-huddle offense clicked to deliver a statement
win over Brigham Young last weekend, but the fast-paced
scheme will be put to the test Friday against Oklahoma.
"A lot of people think we tricked BYU, we didn't
trick BYU," coach Todd Graham said Monday, two days
after the Golden Hurricane (2-0) won a wild 55-47 game
here. "The pace at which we do things is very important,
it's our philosophy of what we're trying to accomplish.
"We're trying to get the ball to our best people
and we've got a system in place that we've spent some
time installing," he said.
In that system, brought from Arkansas by offensive
coordinator Gus Malzahn, quarterback Paul Smith passed
for a career-best 454 yards Saturday and five touchdowns
-- four of those coming on consecutive possessions.
The outcome delivered first-year coach Graham a
sought-after statement win and gave the program its
first 2-0 start since 1998. Graham was quick to shift
attention off the offensive technique and onto his
players.
"It's not about some magical scheme," Graham said. "We
have a really, really, really good quarterback that
makes really good decisions and can really, really
throw the ball well, and what you've seen is a dramatic
improvement in the guys he's throwing it to."
The system, which Graham said was designed to beat
the "best teams on our schedule," will be tested against
No. 4 Oklahoma (3-0), which beat Utah State 54-3 on
Saturday.
"You say you try to treat it like every other game
as far as preparation and your focus goes, but we still
know it's the Sooners in the back of our head," Smith
said. "I'm really excited to get another chance to
play them."
Tulsa last played Oklahoma in 2005 at Norman, with
OU winning 31-15. The last time the Hurricane beat
Oklahoma came in 1996.
"You're not going to trick (Oklahoma coach) Bob
Stoops or (defensive coordinator) Brent Venables," Graham
said. "That's not the idea of our offense anyway."
Despite the team's offensive fireworks against BYU,
Graham said his team almost squandered the game due
to poor special teams coverage. Tulsa gave up 27 points
in the second quarter alone.
"What happened to us in the second quarter, we had
some guys who were starting on defense running down
on kickoff cover that were tired," Graham said. "We
almost lost a football game Saturday because of our
kickoff cover, and we can't have that."
To prepare for Oklahoma during the short week, players
practiced Sunday night. Graham said he won't need to
give any motivational speeches to his squad about going
up against Friday's opponent.
"We went out and practiced last night after playing
a very, very physical game," Graham said. "We had 100
percent of our kids in practice, fired up and ready
to go, and not one of them was thinking about BYU."