TULSA, Okla. (AP) – A game that didn’t start until after midnight quickly turned into a nightmare for Tulsa.
Starting quarterback G.J. Kinne suffered a knee injury in the first quarter, and the Golden Hurricane fell hopelessly behind without him in a 59-33 loss to No. 8 Oklahoma State early Sunday morning.
After Kinne ran out of bounds on a 23-yard run, he got popped late by safety Daytawion Lowe and careened into the Tulsa sideline. Lowe was flagged for a 15-yard personal foul penalty for the late hit that knocked Kinne out of the game.
The Golden Hurricane (1-2) were already without star receiver Damaris Johnson, a second-team All-American last season and the NCAA’s career record holder in all-purpose yards and kickoff returns, because of an indefinite suspension.
“When you’re a team, you have to come together and figure out what to do when you’re in a bad situation,” running back Ja’Terian Douglas said, “and we were in some bad situations tonight.”
Coach Bill Blankenship said he didn’t know the severity of Kinne’s injury. Tulsa plays at No. 4 Boise State next Saturday night.
“It’s a real challenge, but our philosophy is you don’t make excuses or explanations,” Blankenship said. “Kalen (Henderson) came in and, after a shaky start, played real well for us.”
In his first college playing time, Henderson had trouble handling snaps and threw two interceptions before he got the Golden Hurricane offense going in the second half.
Henderson hooked up with Bryan Burnham for a 43-yard touchdown as Tulsa scored twice within 8 seconds midway through the third quarter. Douglas zoomed down the right sideline for an 80-yard TD run, then Kwame Sexton recovered an Fitzpatrick’s pop-up that ended up as an effective onside kick.
By then, though, the Golden Hurricane were still down 45-19 and it was little more than a reward for the few home fans that were okstill in the stands.
Henderson wound up with 104 yards on 6-for-20 passing with two TD passes to Burnham and three interceptions. He said he has to prepare this week as though he’ll be the starter against Boise State.
Douglas had 173 yards rushing, including another long touchdown run from 42 yards out, and Trey Watts added 159 yards rushing with two lost fumbles. Both rushing totals were career-highs.
Still, it wasn’t nearly enough to keep up with the high-powered Cowboys.
Brandon Weeden threw for 369 yards and three touchdowns, Joseph Randle ran for 128 yards and three more scores and the Oklahoma State won easily despite sleepwalking at times – and understandably so.
Originally scheduled to start at 9:10 p.m., the game didn’t get going until 16 minutes after midnight and didn’t get over until 3:35 a.m.
“When we won the game, everybody’s obviously very excited about the game but everybody’s just walking around like zombies,” Weeden said. “Everybody’s pretty fatigued.
“Ultimately, we won the game. Here’s the deal: If you start a game this late and you end up losing the game, for our sake, it makes it a little bit tougher to swallow.”
The NCAA doesn’t keep records showing where the game ranks among the latest to start or finish, but the bizarre circumstances will make this game hard to forget for anyone who stayed up for it.
“I’m not real excited about playing at that time, to be honest with you,” Cowboys coach Mike Gundy said. “There comes a certain point in the middle of the morning your body’s not used to functioning. Whether young people stay up late at night or not, they don’t exert themselves at 2 and 3 in the morning.
“I had concerns about injuries on both teams. I was really concerned about losing players.”
The Cowboys built up a 45-6 lead less than 6 minutes into the second half and showed that a change in location, an extended weather delay and an odd start time did little to change the results in a rematch of a 65-28 win against Tulsa (1-2) last year in Stillwater.
Oklahoma State was up 41-7 at halftime in that one.
“No question, I think we took an emotional gut shot. And it took our guys almost a quarter to get back from it,” Blankenship said. “At least that is what I sensed. I don’t think they got down, but I kind of saw the wind come out of our guys a little bit.”
About the only thing missing for Oklahoma State was a 100-yard receiving game from Justin Blackmon. The Biletnikoff Award winner’s NCAA record run of 14 straight games in triple digits was halted. He had a 4-yard TD catch in the fourth quarter but ended up with only 57 yards.
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