Coaching Era · TulsaThe 2010 Conference USA title
Todd Graham's 10-3 team wins the league and a bowl
Tulsa
2-0Latest
American Athletic · Tre Lamb, year 2 (6-8) · Chapman Stadium · 30,000 · 28,520 avg in 2026
The nationunrankedAP / Coaches
The model#111 CFB ZeitgeistSP+ #75 (-2.3) · FPI #79
The marketno line yetvs East Texas A&M · our model 87% Tulsa · a number, not a pick
LastW 23–17 at Sam Houston · Sat Sep 12 · Thomas Davis 2 sacks, 2 TFL, 4 tackles
Nextvs East Texas A&M · Sat Sep 19 · 8 pm ET · Chapman Stadium · first meeting on record · Game preview
Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2
The CFP Era
12 seasons inside the CFP era, no bids yet — the era the program is still trying to break into.
TRAJECTORY · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned
Program Quality
AP Rank (inverted)
CFP Appearance
Tulsa's 2014–2025 record is 55-87. The era is still being written; the CFP line is the one the program is arguing for.
Program outlook
Tulsa once built one of the most points-per-game offenses in the country out of a private university with 4,000 students. The scoreboard hasn't spun like that in over a decade — and a first-year coach trying to restart the motor went 4-8 in his debut.
Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs
The Golden Hurricane's identity was never about enrollment or budget. Todd Graham turned Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium into a track meet in the late 2000s — a tempo offense that outscored power programs, a 10-3 Conference USA title in 2010, and then Bill Blankenship's 11-3 Liberty Bowl team in 2012. That was Tulsa at its best: the smallest school in the league, putting up the most points.
Tre Lamb arrived from East Tennessee State with a reputation as a program-builder, and ran directly into the gap between what the roster was and what the identity requires. A 4-8 (1-7 American) first season in 2025 wasn't a surprise to anyone watching the depth chart, but it stretched the distance from the Graham years into something harder to wave away. The internal fracture in Tulsa is patient and pointed: one side says Lamb needs time to reload a thin roster, the other side wants the offense to feel like a track meet again and doesn't want to wait.
The 2026 question isn't whether Lamb can eventually rebuild Tulsa — the FCS record says he can build — but whether the offense can find any trace of the tempo identity this season. A bowl trip would end the longest bowl drought in program history. A winning record would be a statement that the smallest school in the American can still out-gun the room. Those are modest goals for a program that used to make them look easy.
On the field
When it's working, Tulsa football is a scoreboard problem — tempo, the deep ball, a pass-happy attack that wears out secondaries before they solve it. The Graham-era wide-open offense was the blueprint the sport was catching up to; the post-Graham years have been a search for who runs it next. Lamb runs a spread-based system, and the 2026 question is whether the pieces in place can get the scoreboard moving again at Chapman Stadium.
All-time record · Tulsa
Tulsa has won 50% of its games since 1914 — 64% at home, 35% on the road.
540-512-22 all-time · 111 seasons · 1914–2026
Home
348-188-7
Away
178-312-15
Neutral
14-12
27%
1910s
60%
1920s
51%
1930s
65%
1940s
52%
1950s
50%
1960s
55%
1970s
58%
1980s
36%
1990s
49%
2000s
47%
2010s
43%
2020s
Coaching Era · Tulsa
Tre Lamb
Tre Lamb in year 2 of the rebuild. The methodology is taking shape.
Era Tre Lamb · 2025–presentPrev: Kevin Wilson (2023–2024)OC: Kevin Barbay / co-Ty DarlingtonPrev OC: co-Ty Darlington / Brad Robbins (2025)DC: Josh Reardon / co-Mike GrayPrev DC: Chris Polizzi (2023–2024)
2
years · era
Program memory
What this program never forgets
Most weeks vanish. These didn’t.
2012
The Liberty Bowl season
11-3 and a Liberty Bowl win under Bill Blankenship — the high-water mark
The 2020 AAC title-game run
A surprise pandemic-year climb to the American championship game
Moment of the season — so far · Tulsa · 2026
Moment of the season — so far · Tulsa · 2026Won 24-10 vs Oklahoma State
Week 1 of 2026. Won as a 13-point underdog — the result the market didn't see coming.
NFL Draft Pipeline
2022–2022
NFL Draft PipelineTulsa has sent 2 players to the NFL Draft since 2022 — one of them in the first round.
Thin. Roster development still maturing.
2
picks · 1 in round 1
#24
Tyler Smith
Offensive Tackle · 2022 · Dallas
#230
Chris Paul
Offensive Guard · 2022 · Washington
#82 all-time · 4 first-round picksthe talent factory →
More in this tab
Ladder finish
Season standing · 2026 · 2-0
Season standing · 2026 · 2-0Tulsa is 2-0 and unranked in the season's first weeks.
Even or better through the season's first weeks. The resume is still forming.
FBS competitive
Sub-FBSBuildingBowlRankedContenderPlayoff
Coaching history
Coaching history
- Hired Tre Lamb
- Hired Ryan Switzer (interim)
- Kevin Wilson departs
- Ryan Switzer departs (interim)
- Hired Kevin Wilson
- Philip Montgomery departs
- Hired Philip Montgomery
- Bill Blankenship departs
Coordinator lineage
Unit lineage
Tulsa’s offense and defense, by coordinator
FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.
Offense2014–2026
2014 · Denver Johnson2015 · co-Matt Mattox / co-Sterlin Gilbert2016 · Philip Montgomery2023–2024 · Steve Spurrier Jr.2025 · co-Ty Darlington / Brad Robbins2026 · Kevin Barbay / co-Ty Darlington
Defense2014–2026
2014 · Brent Guy2015–2017 · co-Bill Young / co-Brian Norwood2018 · Bill Young2019–2021 · Joe Gillespie2022 · Luke Olson2023–2024 · Chris Polizzi2025–2026 · Josh Reardon / co-Mike Gray
Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)
Gameday customs
Rituals
Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.
Todd Graham Era (2007-2010)
since 2007
more
Todd Graham's 2007-2010 tenure produced the program's modern peak — 2010 10-3 + Conference USA championship + Hawaii Bowl championship. The Air Raid offense identity + recruiting reach + bowl wins reset what Hurricane fans believed possible. Graham's 2011 departure to Pittsburgh opened Bill Blankenship's tenure.
Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium
since 1930
more
Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium (built 1930, renovated 2008) — Tulsa's on-campus venue with 30,000 capacity — anchors the program. The historic stadium + the bowl design + the Oklahoma plains setting create a venue distinct from the larger Oklahoma flagship-state programs (OU + OSU).
Reign Cane Identity
since 2010s
more
'Reign Cane' (a pun on 'Reign' + 'Hurricane') — the program's modern marketing identity since the Todd Graham era — captures the Golden Hurricane brand. Used in tweets + recruiting materials + postgame celebrations. The phrase compactly encapsulates ascent + storm imagery.
Cultural identity
Bowls
Bowl / Postseason Ledger
Bowl / Postseason LedgerRecent postseason (2015-2021): 2-2
Most recent: 2021 — win 30-17 (home). Last 5 postseason: 2-2.
2021202020162015
Reddit blowups
r/cfb moments
1.4k
[Postgame Thread] Tulsa Defeats UCF 34-26
738
[Postgame Thread] UC Davis Defeats Tulsa 19-17
723
[Postgame Thread] Navy Defeats Tulsa 20-17
332
[Postgame Thread] Tulsa Defeats SMU 28-24
228
[Postgame Thread] Tulsa Defeats USF 42-13
All-time top community posts · ranked by upvotes
This page may include content derived from public news sources, social media, and fan communities. We relay these sources as-is — we are not reporting them. Sources may be summarized or quoted imperfectly; for anything that matters, go look at the original source directly. The original source may also be wrong. AI-generated content is labeled and may contain factual errors. All analysis is editorial opinion, not professional reporting. Data sources · About this site