Tulsa held its first Homecoming in 1926, a 14-7 win over Arkansas at McNulty Park, the baseball field the team played on before Skelly Field opened. Saturday is the 101st, and it closes a sad week on campus. On Wednesday the university announced the death of F.A. Dry, the Hall of Famer who coached the Golden Hurricane to four straight Missouri Valley titles in the 1970s. Before that, as an assistant in the early 1960s, he helped build the passing teams that put Tulsa on the national map.
The visitors would have fit right in back then. Caden Veltkamp has thrown at least three touchdown passes in five straight games, a run no other quarterback in the country has going, and Easton Messer leads the nation in catches.
The Owls come in rested and bowl eligible. On Thursday night, Nov. 5, they beat UTSA 60-29 in Boca Raton and handed the Roadrunners their first league loss. Messer scored four touchdowns, three on catches and one on a throw of his own, and his 12 touchdown catches are now a school single-season record. The surprise was what FAU did on the ground. Leonard Farrow ran for 126 yards on 12 carries, including a 59-yard score, tight end Antonio Johnson punched in three short touchdowns, and the Owls had their best rushing night under Zach Kittley. Jonathan Bax had two and a half of FAU's six sacks. The win made the Owls bowl eligible, a first since 2020.
Tulsa had its own big day two days later in New Orleans, a 60-10 rout of Tulane. It was the most points Tulsa has ever scored against the Green Wave, who didn't score until the fourth quarter. Baylor Hayes completed 26 of 33 passes for 338 yards and four touchdowns, both career highs, and Oran Singleton Jr. caught 13 of them for 177 yards and three scores. His 13 catches set a Yulman Stadium record. NuNu Campbell and JD Drew each intercepted a pass, and Thomas Davis and Kyran Duhon led a pass rush that sacked Tulane six times.
Tulsa's offense was ordinary outside the league and has looked like a different unit in it, and its three conference losses came by a total of 12 points, including 45-44 in overtime to North Texas. Hayes is the steady hand in all of it. A sprained knee at Sam Houston cost him the East Texas A&M game in September, but he has thrown for more than 200 yards in every conference game since. Neither school has reported a significant injury this week.
Two things should settle it. The first is what happens when Veltkamp drops back. Tulsa is tied for the league lead in sacks, with Duhon and Davis doing much of the damage, and it has the best turnover margin in the American. The Golden Hurricane have given the ball away just five times all season. If they can hurry Veltkamp into a mistake or two, that edge does the rest.
The second is FAU's run defense, which has been the soft spot all year and gives up well over 200 rushing yards a game. Damari Alston and Trequan Jones give Tulsa two backs to lean on, and a grinding afternoon on the ground would keep Messer on the sideline.
FAU's record comes with an asterisk. The Owls are 5-0 at home, the best home start in program history, but 1-3 away from Boca, with the only road win at UL Monroe. At 3-2 in the league, with losses to North Texas and Army, they need a lot of help to reach the title game, and they still have South Florida at home and must go to East Carolina after this. For Tulsa, a win would mean a sixth victory with Charlotte, 1-8, coming to Chapman for Senior Day next week and a trip to UTSA on Nov. 27.
FAU leads the series 4-1, and Tulsa's lone win came in the 2015 opener, 47-44 in overtime at Chapman. The Owls have won the four meetings since, including a 63-16 rout here in 2024 and a 40-21 win in Boca last November, when Veltkamp found Messer for two touchdowns.
Tre Lamb called FAU "a well-coached football team" this week and said, "I like the fact that we're at home, and I want that to be the difference."
The projection is Tulsa 35, Florida Atlantic 31. The Golden Hurricane are at home, they protect the ball better than anyone in the league, and they should be able to run on an Owls defense that has had trouble with it. FAU's passing game is too dangerous for this to get away from anyone, but the Owls haven't yet carried their home form on the road. The forecast calls for a mostly sunny afternoon, with a high in the mid-50s and a light breeze.
The market, for the record: Tulsa is about a 5.5-point favorite, and the total is 74.5. The projection (Tulsa by 4) sits a little under the line.
What breaks it: FAU's running game repeats its UTSA performance, Veltkamp stays clean, and the Owls win a shootout to keep their faint title hopes alive. The other way it breaks: Tulsa's pass rush gets home early, the Owls fall behind and have to throw on every down, and Homecoming turns into a long Saturday for the visitors.