Play with passion was halftime plea

BY MIKE AVERILL World Staff Writer
Friday, October 12, 2012
10/12/12 at 5:56 AM

For the last two weeks, the University of Tulsa has had close victories in games the Golden Hurricane was expected to win.

On Thursday night at H.A. Chapman Stadium it looked like that was going to be the case again when TU went into halftime with a 6-3 lead over the UTEP Miners.

Then, in the third quarter, TU pulled away by scoring three touchdowns.

"I encouraged them to execute a little better, honestly, and to finish drives. We got there twice and had to kick field goals offensively," said TU head coach Bill Blankenship about the team's halftime adjustments. "I thought we were pretty sluggish in the first half."

Blankenship said he felt the team was very close to playing hard but wasn't quite there in the first half.

"I wanted more passion. There's not a panic or concern of anything more than to play hard," he said. "There's a difference when you're playing and executing but you're not playing with passion. That was my encouragement at halftime."

And it seems that encouragement worked.

Alex Singleton started it off with a 1-yard plunge for a third-down TD.

Then it was Ja'Terian Douglas' turn. He broke an 81-yard touchdown run to give the Golden Hurricane a 19-3 lead.

"That was a big one without a doubt," Blankenship said.

Just more than a minute later, linebacker Shawn Jackson picked up a Carson Meger fumble and carried it 17 yards for a touchdown and a 26-3 lead.

Linebacker DeAundre Brown said that when the defense puts points on the board it gives the defense the opportunity to wear down the opposing offense.

"It gives us a chance to get back on the field and create another (turnover)," he said.

The Miners scored early in the fourth quarter but the Golden Hurricane quickly answered.

Running back Zack Langer, a redshirt freshman out of Jenks, had a 55-yard catch and run on a Cody Green swing pass to set up an Alex Singleton touchdown to bring the final score to 33-11.

Singleton's second touchdown tied the school record of 32 career touchdowns.

"It seemed like UTEP was crawling back in and trying to get momentum and I think Zack (Langer) did a good job of helping us close the door on them."

Mike Averill 918-581-8489
mike.averill@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

Tulsa's Alex Singleton scored two touchdowns Thursday against UTEP. TOM GILBERT/Tulsa World