After a successful two-game homestand, the Black Knights hit the road this week to start a road trip that will feature two night games. This week, the Black Knights face the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, and friends, it’s a MONSTER match-up. Both teams have a hell of a lot at stake in this one. For Army, a win lets them keep pace in an American Conference Championship race that feels wide open. Tulsa, meanwhile, has dropped three of their last four contests and faces tough match-ups at Tulane, at home against FAU, and at UTSA, where American Conference records go to die. Despite getting off to a hot start, the Golden Hurricane might struggle to reach bowl eligibility if they can’t get a win this week.
In a lot of ways, these two teams play similar kinds of football. Tulsa runs a different offense, obviously, but beyond that, these teams have quite a bit in common. Can the Black Knights still get that big “W” on the road?
Let’s talk about it.
Your Need to Know heading into Friday Night Lights in Oklahoma! #GoArmy https://t.co/LiGLq3J77g
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 21, 2026
Four Keys to Beating Tulsa
Take What the Defense Gives You
Tulsa has gotten steamrolled by running quarterbacks the last two weeks. They gave up 232 yards rushing to Navy QB Jackson Gutierrez and another 154 yards to Rice QB Jacurri Brown. Both those teams run versions of the option as the base of their offense, though in ways that are distinctly different from the way the Black Knights do it. Still, this Tulsa defense has seen quite a lot of option football over the last two weeks. They should have had time to adjust their eye discipline by now.
Given this and Army QB Cale Hellums’s recent success running the football, Tulsa will surely key on Hellums defensively, especially early in the game. That should open up something for Army’s offense, though it’s a little hard to say what that will be. Maybe Army FB Godspower Nwawuihe has a chance to break free up the middle, or maybe the Black Knights will need to get the ball out onto the perimeter with SBs Samari Howard and Zach Mundell. Hell, we might even see a few passes to WR Brady Anderson, who has just seven catches this year despite getting open downfield quite a bit last week. Even before the Golden Hurricane played Navy, they let North Texas RB Jahiem White rush for 219 yards on 6.8 yards per carry, so the Black Knights should be able to get something going on the ground.
Late in the game, once Army’s outstanding offensive line has had a chance to wear away at Tulsa’s D-Line, we might see Hellums find room to run. In the early going, however, the Black Knights are most likely gonna need to get the ball out to their other playmakers to keep the chains moving. If they can do that, they’ll have an excellent shot at winning this game.
In the last 2 weeks, Cale Hellums has rushed for 418 of Army’s 808 total rushing yards and 7 rushing TDs. He is also on the doorstep of joining some elite Army QB company. Read more on our QB ⤵️ https://t.co/Lrcf4It5vk
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 21, 2026
Win Possessions
As we noted in the opening, Tulsa plays a similar style football to the Black Knights. The Golden Hurricane take good care of the football, they try to drive the football methodically by staying in the third-and-manageable situations, and defensively, they play a bend-but-don’t-break scheme before tightening up in the red zone.
The team that does these things better will win this game.
Defensively, Army needs to stop the run and keep everything in front of them in the secondary. If they can do that, they should be able to force some third-and-long situations. Tulsa converts just 31.3% of their third downs (126th in the FBS), so as we noted in the Preview article, the Black Knights ought to force a few punts if they can win on first and second down. However, this only matters if they can contain Tulsa’s explosive plays.
Similarly, Tulsa’s defense has given up a lot of yardage between the twenties this year, especially rushing. However, this team gets much better down in the red zone, both because the field is shorter and because they’re very good at generating turnovers. With a whopping +11 turnover margin, the Golden Hurricane currently stand 4th in the FBS overall. To win this week, Army’s offense will need to take care of the football, but just as importantly, they’ll need to finish drives with touchdowns, too.
We’re expecting the Black Knights to have success running the football. Army has the best rushing attack in the country on both a total yardage basis and on the basis of yards per carry, and they’re going up against the nation’s 121st-ranked rushing defense. Perhaps more to the point, Tulsa allows opponents to convert 41.2% of their third downs (98th in the FBS) while Army’s offense already converts an outstanding 52.1% of their own third downs (11th). So this is strength on weakness at two levels for the Black Knights.
But again, this only matters if the Black Knights can finish drives with touchdowns. That means playing disciplined offense and avoiding the kinds of stupid penalties that kill drives. To date, no one has stopped Army’s offense but Army. If they can play clean, disciplined football, they’ll have an excellent shot at winning this game.
Rush the Quarterback But Don’t Break Contain
Tulsa QB Baylor Hayes is an excellent running quarterback who doesn’t turn the football over. However, he also doesn’t complete a super-high percentage of his passes. As we noted in the Preview, his skillset sits somewhere between Temple’s Ajani Sheppard and La. Tech’s Trey Kukuk. Both those guys are effective passers, but what makes them dangerous is their ability to turn busted plays into positive yardage with their legs.
Hayes has taken just six sacks this season, but he’s been hurried plenty, especially in the Navy game. Army’s D-Line and newfound pass rush will need to get after Hayes to prevent him hitting explosive plays to his talented receiving corps this week, but the Black Knights absolutely cannot afford to break contain and give up either long runs to Hayes or long runs after the catch on swing passes to RB Damari Alston.
If Army wants to get off the field on third down, they need to make Hayes beat them with his arm from the pocket in long yardage situations. If the Black Knights can do that a few times, they’ll have an excellent chance to win this game.
Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy
This is a night game on the road in another time zone. The Black Knights have quite a few night games this year, including this one and the two after that. Unfortunately, however, playing at night is not always Army’s best thing. To win this week, they’ll need to get off the bus ready to play, and then they need to throw the first punch. After that, they need to keep punching.
Tulsa needs this game for bowl eligibility, and more to the point, they don’t want to give up a million rushing yards — again — to yet another triple-option team, this time on their home turf. The Golden Hurricane played a very good North Texas team tough but lost, they then let Navy come back on them and lost, and then they finally beat the hell out of the Rice Owls. They’ll come into this game with both a renewed sense of confidence and something to prove.
Psychologically, that combination can be tough to beat.
But. These guys know that they’ve given up a ton of rushing yards lately, and they also know that Rice isn’t necessarily a great team. If Army can get out to a lead early and prove that they’re straight-up better than either Rice or Navy, that’ll strike blows both physically and psychologically to a team that has to be a little unsure of itself given its play over the past month.
This isn’t the game to be Daniel LaRusso, the plucky underdog who hangs tough and then wins with a last-second miracle. In this game, we’re gonna need to see the bullies who beat people up and impose their will from the very start.
‘Down the Line’ The Long Gray Line advances in white and black this week. ⚫️⚪️⚪️ #GoArmy https://t.co/02s4vzhbeL
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 21, 2026
Final Thoughts
Cobra Kai metaphor notwithstanding, Army is now a two-point underdog at Tulsa, and indeed, every pro-bettor in America has picked the Black Knights to lose.
No one respects this team at all!
Speaking personally, it’s a little hard for me to believe that Tulsa is going to somehow become a different team defensively just because they’ve faced variations of the option for the last two weeks, but this is indeed what people seem to think. Incredibly, no one gives Army a chance this week.
The Black Knights need to prove people wrong. If their defense continues improving, and their offense stays consistent, they can get that done.
Statistically speaking, this 2026 Army offense is Coach Monken’s best by about a full yard per carry. Both the 2017 and 2024 teams averaged an outstanding 5.5 yards per carry, and they both won a ton of games. By comparison, this year’s 6.5 yards per carry puts the team into a whole ‘nother category of explosiveness. If they can keep that going, we really should be in for a special season. However, that needs to start this week.
Go Army! Beat Tulsa!!!
