Playing before a typically empty Marlins Park on Monday afternoon, Tulsa was Giancarlo Stanton and Central Michigan was a hanging slider. The Golden Hurricane handed Central Michigan a 55-10 spanking, the second-largest margin of victory in Tulsa’s 21-game bowl history and by far the biggest blowout in the 3-year history of the Miami Beach Bowl.
Tulsa scored on its first eight possessions of the day, starting with a 5-yard Josh Atkinson reception from Dane Evans to cap a 17-play, 93-yard march on the Hurricane’s first possession of the game. After consecutive Redford Jones field goals, Tulsa found the end zone again on another Evans scoring strike, this one a 13-yarder to Keevan Lucas.
After forcing a three-and-out, Evans closed the half with his third touchdown toss of the half, a 4-yard connection to Chris Minter to secure a 27-3 lead at the break.
Running back James Flanders got on the board on Tulsa’s first drive of the second half, racing in from 17 yards out on a 4th-and-2 carry. After yet another three-and-out, the Evans-to-Lucas combination notched its second touchdown of the day, this one a 28-yard connection.
They weren’t done, though, as Tulsa’s next drive culminated in Lucas’s third touchdown reception of the afternoon to push the score to 48-3 with 2:16 to play in the third quarter. The defense got in on the action in the next possession when Jesse Brubaker raced an interception 66 yards for a touchdown with 12:49 to play in the game.
Central Michigan finally scored its lone touchdown when Jahray Hayes carried in a 13-yard touchdown rush with 9:21 to play. Quarterback Cooper Rush finished the day hitting only 24-of-49 throws for 241 yards with three interceptions, while the Chips (6-7) averaged only 3.8 yards per carry on 22 rushes.
Evans closed a distinguished career with one of his most efficient games ever, hitting 28-of-38 passes for 304 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions. The Golden Hurricane posted two 100-yard rushers as Flanders carried 17 times for 100 yards and a touchdown and D’Angelo Brewer rushed 17 times for 105 yards. Atkinson collected 12 receptions for 131 yards and a touchdown, while Lucas finished with seven grabs for 72 yards and a trio of scores.
For head coach Philip Montgomery, Tulsa’s 581-yard, 34-first down performance (including converting 10-of-15 third down tries) was an example of what the Art Briles offense can do when clicking on each and every cylinder. It was a domination so thorough Montgomery had to look for creative ways to get his punter in the game.
#TulsaFB: First NCAA team with two 1,000-yard rushers, two 1,000-yard receivers and a 3,000-yard passer in the same season.
— Kelly Hines (@kellyintulsa) December 19, 2016
The win pushes the Golden Hurricane to 10-3 on the season, a significant upgrade from the club’s 6-7 mark in Montgomery’s debut season of 2015 and a complete transformation from the 2-10 team Montgomery inherited.
Beyond that, a win like this establishes Tulsa as a team to watch in next year’s American race and Montgomery as a name to watch for open Power 5 jobs in 2017.