Fresno State averaged just under ten yards per play against Colorado last Saturday. The balanced attack featured yards gained 44% through the air -- and 56% on the ground. And 'Dogs head coach Tim Deruyter wants to keep it that way against Tulsa.
"As a Defensive Coordinator I've always felt that that's the toughest thing to do is if you know someone is going to throw 90% of the time you can do things to stop it. If you know they're going to run it 90% of the time you can do things to stop it. But when you're right at 50/50, it's very very difficult to be able to double receivers and defend against the run." said DeRuyter.
Coach DeRuyter also got what he wanted from the offense -- explosive plays. The 'Dogs ended up with four plays of more than 50 yards. That's caught the eye of Tulsa's second year head coach Bill Blankenship.
"They thing that you didn't see in the Oregon game that you saw in the Colorado game is the explosiveness. The long touchdown run, by Rouse. Then it's followed up by another throw and run, that's the part you know they had to work a lot harder against Oregon to get those scores. But against Colorado they created a lot of explosives." said Blankenship.
Junior quarterback Derek Carr went over 61%in completion percentage for the third straight game. And for the second time this year he only had five incompletions.
"I'm always going to be confident, no matter who we're playing. No matter who we're going up against. So I'm going to go into the game pretty confident no matter what I did last week, so I feel pretty good about this one. But again they've got a lot of talent and we've got to go out there and execute." said Carr.
And Carr's dynamic play making ability has got the attention of the Golden Hurricane defense.
"It's always good to go against a good quarterback and I see some NFL tendencies in him so. Just to be able to make plays and play against somebody like that would be, that's what you come to play College Football for. You want that challenge every week." said Tulsa Cornerback Lowell Rose.
