Call it stage fright or being awed by their surroundings, but whatever the reason, the Tulsa Golden Hurricane made a lot of mistakes in their 45-0 loss at Oklahoma, on Saturday.

If you watched the game on television, like I did, then you were privy to TU coach Todd Graham’s pregame locker room speech; after which I was even fired up.

“Have a focus about what we’re doing, don’t focus on the surroundings,” he told his team. “Focus on your fundamentals; your eyes, your feet and your hands. Do what you’re coached to do and be poised. Be poised. Come out and set the tempo; block, tackle, play with a passion, physical football, and be poised and stay together. You guys got that? Today’s our day. Play with a passion. Take it to them. Don’t wait. Play with a passion, put it in the left lane and put the hammer down.”

I got that, but I’m not sure the players did.

It looked like Tulsa’s DeAundre Brown got it, when he intercepted a Landry Jones pass on the Sooners’ first play from scrimmage, but beyond that the fundamentals were lacking from TU’s focus.

Granted, OU has a very good defense, but TU boasted the nation’s best offense the past two seasons, and it was the offense that committed three turnovers, including an interception of a G.J. Kinne pass into the end zone.

Later, TU marched all the way down to the OU 4 yard line, and Kinne fumbled the ball while being sacked.

Even while trying to do the right thing, the Golden Hurricane couldn’t catch a break, as Kevin Fitzpatrick’s 50-yard field goal attempt fell short.

It was just not to be for Tulsa, and the Sooners proved they have yet another good quarterback in Jones, who completed 25-of-37 passes for 336 yards and six touchdowns. Jones was picked off twice in the game.

OU (2-1) will have this week off, while Tulsa (2-1) is set to play its first home game of the season against Sam Houston State, 6 p.m. Saturday, at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

Sam Houston State, a member of the Div. 1-AA Southland Conference, comes into this game 1-1. The Bearkats were off last week, but defeated North Dakota State, 48-45, two weeks ago. SHS lost to Western Illinois in week one, 35-28.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

My son Joshua is a freshman at OU and yes he has football season tickets and has already become a true Sooner. He sat through half of the game in the rain a couple of weeks ago, but arrived so early he was soaked before kickoff. He was also at the Tulsa game this past week. The interesting thing is he and some of his buddies were quite visible during the Fox Sports broadcast of the game against TU.

Joshua is a pledge for a Christian fraternity known as BUCs (Brothers Under Christ). The group of freshman pledging to become full fledged members had to come up with their own fanatical theme and costumes. It was this group of guys that decided a couple of weeks ago to support OU quarterback Landry Jones by sporting mustaches and wearing T-shirts with the slogan, “Fear the ‘Stache.”

Their group has received some national attention, not only during crowd shots of the Fox broadcast, but also throughout the Internet on various fan sites, and on Facebook.

I’ve spent many years doing work on television, so seeing myself on the tube doesn’t much faze me any more, but spotting your son in the crowd a couple of times on a nationally televised game; that’s cool.

[Jeff Brucculeri is the co-author of “Powerful People Are Inspired by Powerful Athletes,” available at www.tunedintosuccess.com.]

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 and is filed under Sports.