BOCA RATON, Fla- Larry McCammon and his career rushing day propelled Florida Atlantic to their first conference win over Tulsa 20-17.
Coming into this game, the Owls had lost three straight games on top of losing their star Quarterback Casey Thompson to a season ending ACL tear.
Coming in relief and making his second start of his FAU career was Daniel Richardson. In his first start, Richardson narrowly missed leading the Owls to a victory in their last game against Illinois, losing a close one 24-17. Prior to this game, head coach Tom Herman had a 13-4 record against the AAC conference and a 2-0 record against Tulsa.
Richardson and star wide receiver LaJohntay Wester got off to a fast start, connecting for seven receptions and 70 yards in the first half (nine for 98 in the full game). McCammon also had it going in the first half with two rushing touchdowns and 47 yards on 11 carries (4.3 YPC). McCammon recorded his sixth career 100 yard rushing performance, finishing the game with 145 all purpose yards.
Tulsa’s offense and quarterback Cardell Williams were unable to get anything going in the first quarter. On top of two penalties, Williams also threw an interception that FAU capitalized on by going down the field and punching it in on the one yard line. He responded before halftime rushing for a seven yard touchdown to make it 14-7 before the Owls made it a 17-7 lead from a Logan Lupo 21 yard field goal.
The Tulsa QB would start off the second half by throwing an interception to Owls DB Jarron Morris. Following the turnover, heavy rain would make it difficult for both teams to move the ball through the air for the third and much of the fourth, resulting in a run heavy play-call for both sides.
With 5:01 left in the fourth, Tulsa would cut the FAU lead to three (20-17) with a 20 yard TD pass from backup QB Braylon Braxton. Prior to that, both teams could only muster six total second half points.
Each team rushed for over 200 yards and averaged at least five YPC. Tulsa came into this game only allowing 108.2 yards rushing per game, ranking second in the AAC. FAU’s defense held both Tulsa QBs to a combined 46% completion percentage and forced the two interceptions.
“Really proud of the way we responded, really proud of the maturity and growth,” head coach Tom Herman said after the game. “For us to have those tangible results was really important for us moving forward,” he added speaking about breaking the three game losing skid.
Next up for FAU is another in-conference battle with USF in Tampa next Saturday. Tulsa will have a bye week next week as they try and regroup for their next matchup on October 19th against Rice.