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FORT WORTH, Texas, November 28, 2006 - The University of Tulsa will represent Conference USA in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl as the Golden Hurricane will play the University of Utah of the Mountain West Conference here December 23 at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, an ESPN Regional Television owned-and-operated event, will be played for the fourth-straight year on December 23 and will be aired by ESPN from Amon G. Carter Stadium with a 7 p.m. (CST) kickoff for the Saturday night game.
"We are excited about the Tulsa-Utah match up," said Tom Starr, the Executive Director of the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, "since both teams won bowl games last season against quality competition. Tulsa captured the Conference USA championship last season in their first year in the league before winning the Liberty Bowl. Utah won the 2005 Emerald Bowl after the school's best-ever football season in 2004 when they captured Mountain West championship and won a BCS bowl game."
The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl meeting will be the fourth between the two schools. Tulsa holds a 2-1 edge in the series as the Hurricane scored both wins at home in Northeast Oklahoma in 1943 (55-0) and 1997 (21-13). The Utes' lone victory was a 45-19 in 1996 at Salt Lake City.
Tulsa will be playing at Amon G. Carter Stadium for the eighth-time as the Hurricane posted a pair of wins (1980 and 1997) in seven meetings with TCU. Utah is 1-1 in Fort Worth as the Utes won in 1997 over TCU before the Horned Frogs' snapped Utah's 18-game winning streak with a 23-20 overtime win in September 2005.
Steve Kragthorpe, who has a 29-21 record at Tulsa, has now guided the Hurricane to three bowl games in four seasons. Prior to Tulsa's Humanitarian bowl berth in Kragthorpe's first season, the Hurricane had not appeared in the post-season since their Freedom Bowl win in 1991.
Tulsa finished the 2006 regular-season with an 8-4 record and 5-3 Conference USA mark after concluding the regular-season schedule with a 38-3 home win over Tulane. The Hurricane captured the 2005 C-USA title game before defeating Fresno State 31-24 in the Liberty Bowl to give Tulsa a 5-8 post-season mark.
Tulsa enters the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl averaging 28.9 points a game with 399.8 total yards per game on offense. The Hurricane, who held seven of their 12 opponents to under 300 yards in total offense this season, are allowing 19.75 points and 287.3 total yards on defense with a plus-8 turnover margin.
Paul Smith, a scholar-athlete with a 3.8 grade-point average, leads the Hurricane offense. The junior quarterback has thrown for over 5,600 yards in two-plus seasons in Tulsa, including a 65.9 passing percentage (213-323) and 2,569 yards with 15 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Smith was the 2005 Liberty Bowl's most valuable player by completing 18 of 27 passes for 234 yards and one touchdown, and rushing for 45 yards and one touchdown against Fresno State.
Tulsa has the sixth-best pass defense in the country as the Hurricane are led defensively by junior linebacker Nelson Coleman, who has compiled 267 career tackles. Kendrick Alexander, a senior defensive back from Plano, Tex., ranks behind Coleman in tackles this season with 66 total stops.
Tickets for the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl are $40 (sideline) and $15 (end zone) and can be purchased by visiting the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl Web site, www.armedforcesbowl.com. Discount tickets are available to all branches of U.S. armed services veterans and may be obtained ONLY by calling the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl ticket office at 817/810-0012.
