Houston Football: Preseason game-by-game predictions for 2017 season
By Zach Bigalke
On the road once again, Houston will face a tough test in Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane should be a solid team once again this year, but they lost a few key players from last season’s squad. Key among those losses was Dane Evans, the three-year starter who led Tulsa to 10 wins last season.
Now they’ll turn to redshirt freshman Luke Skipper to take over the offense. It will be interesting to see what Philip Montgomery can pull off with his own recruits in his third season as the Tulsa head coach. The Golden Hurricane has ranked on the bottom half of the AAC in terms of recruiting since Montgomery took over, so he needs to hope there are some diamonds in the rough among the past few classes.
While the offense should still be decent despite the loss of Evans, the real questions are on defense. Five starters are gone from a team that put up respectable numbers last year. Tulsa was built to survive shootouts last year. They aren’t necessarily going to be able to pull off the same feats this season.
Last season’s battle ended in a 38-31 victory for Houston. The result should look similar this time around. Skipper and the Golden Hurricane should be able to take a few shots at the Cougars defense. But the high-powered Houston offense will be able to put more points on the scoreboard and move to 7-0.