Golden Hurricane Nation Ruffled by Sunday Loss

I was checking in on the Tulsa paper, and I saw that there has been considerable fan dissent and criticism of Coach Todd Graham for the defeat on Sunday.

To some extent, this is to be expected.  They have lost seven of their last eight games, and that simply does not make fans happy--or coaches and players for that matter.

The game against East Carolina had a number of odd points.  Of course, you never want to give up a hail mary, but Graham also got caught in a cycle of two point conversions--where he missed one and then kept chasing it trying to get it back.

Is Todd Graham's heavy criticism warranted?

What if the Hail Mary pass on the final play had been knocked down and Tulsa had escaped with a conference victory?

If TU won the game, the three missed two-point conversions, the fourth-down conversion allowed during an earlier ECU touchdown drive, the 45 points allowed would only have been conversation pieces.

Now they are ammunition for angry fans opining on message boards and comment sections.

It is clear there is discontent in Tulsa.  There is even talk that the program needs to return to post-season play to keep everyone happy.  This is surprising given that Tulsa has had some pretty unprecedented success under Graham, but fans have notoriously short memories.

In a sense, it is a little bit like the situation that Gregg Brandon was in.  Graham had double digit wins with Steve Kragthorpe's players and then as his players moved into the system, things have gotten a little less effective and are now getting pretty sour.

Or, this is just a blip.

Having said that, it is unclear how it will effect the game Saturday.  Either this is a snowball that continues to roll, or, with their back to the wall, Tulsa responds with an improved performance.