Photo by Greg Duke
FORT COLLINS, CO—The TU Golden Hurricane traveled to north central Colorado on Saturday afternoon to take on the Colorado State University Rams with the hopes of reversing a three-game losing streak that had begun at home against OU on September 13th. Last season, one of the three victories for the Hurricane was at home against the Colorado State, and it went without saying going into the game that they were hungry for revenge at home.
Revenge is what they got. In spades. When the final gun sounded, the Golden Hurricane was once again on the light end of the stadium scoreboard to the tune of 42-17.
Once again, the Hurricane loss can be blamed on two crucial problems they have had all season: the “big play” and the inability of the TU defense to pose any sort of resistance in the games early quarters that forces the offense to climb a steep hill to try and pull off a victory.
Colorado State came out of the locker room on fire, placing two touchdowns on the board in the first quarter the first of which resulting from one of those big plays.
The first six Colorado State points were scored by Dee Hart, who ran 14-yards into the TU end zone with just three minutes and change drained from the scoreboard clock. Hart set up his touchdown by slicing through the Hurricane defense for a big 53-yard gallop.
CSU receiver Rashard Higgins then scored with a little under seven minutes remaining in the first frame on a 28-yard connection from quarterback Garrett Grayson to push the home team ahead by two scores when the second quarter began. Grayson would find Higgins two more times in the game for touchdown passes.
Aside from field goals, Hart and Higgins were the heroes for the Rams on Saturday, with Higgins notching a team record in the process.
TU finally scored 27 minutes into the ballgame when quarterback Dane Evans sliced thought the CSU defense and into the Rams endzone for the only Golden Hurricane points of the first half. He and Keevan Lucas were the only TRU players to enter the Colorado State end zone in the game, while kicker Carl Salazar tacked on a 25-yard field goal in the dying seconds of the third quarter.
In the first half the TU defense allowed five plays greater than 25 yards in the first half, allowing the Rams to amass nearly 250 of their 382 yards in the first half and three touchdowns.
As a result of that, Colorado State dominated on the yardage totals as well as the scoreboard.
CSU ended the game with 298 passing yards and 234 yards rushing, while Tulsa’s offense amounted to 390 yards – 127 yards on the ground and 263 yards passing.
Tulsa’s Dane Evans completed 16-of-29 passes for 222 yards and one TD, while Zack Langer led the Hurricane rushing attack with 72 yards and Keevan Lucas caught seven passes for 101 yards. For the Rams, Garrett Grayson threw for 236 yards and three touchdowns, while Dee Hart gained 143 yards and two TDs on 11 carries.
Ram receiver Rashard Higgins caught six receptions for 178 yards and a school record four touchdowns.
The loss drops the Golden Hurricane to 1-4 overall this season while Colorado State improves to 4-1 overall. TU returns to conference play in the AAC next weekend when they travel to Philadelphia to take on Temple.
The next home game for TU is homecoming when they take on South Florida.