Woooo Hoooo!
Kudos roll in for Tulsa's success
12/9/2003
Coach of the year is Kragthorpe, eight players honored.
The Humanitarian Bowl-bound University of Tulsa football team continues to reap the fringe benefits of winning.
Steve Kragthorpe was named the Western Athletic Conference coach of the year Monday and linebacker Nick Bunting, one of three TU players named first-team All-WAC, was chosen the league's freshman of the year.
Senior offensive tackle Austin Chadwick and sophomore tight end Garrett Mills joined Bunting on the first team.
Senior receiver Romby Bryant, junior quarterback James Kilian, junior cornerback Jer maine Hope, sophomore safety Kedrick Alexander and junior linebacker Michael LeDet were selected second-team All-WAC.
The Hurricane produced the most all-conference performers since joining the WAC. The previous record was six in 1996. The all-league harvest lends credence to the saying that to the victors
go the spoils. The Golden Hurricane went 8-4 for its first winning season since 1991 and finished in a secondplace WAC tie with Fresno State.
Kragthorpe orchestrated the biggest turnaround in Division I-A this season and is a candidate for national coach of the year. TU won just one game against Division I-A opposition in two years prior to his arrival.
"I think it's a total team award," said Kragthorpe, when informed that he was namedWAC coach of the year. "I couldn't have done this, obviously, by myself. I have said that all along and I firmly believe that. I think we've got a great bunch of guys who have all been pulling on one rope in the same direction all season long, and some people are going to get some honors because of what the team has done."
Kragthorpe is Tulsa's first conference football coach of the year since John Cooper was named the Missouri Valley Conference's top coach in 1982. TU was not affiliated with a conference from 1986-95.
WAC coaches select the coach of the year and the all-conference team. Kragthorpe said he voted Boise State's Dan Hawkins and Rice's Ken Hatfield first and second. Hawkins has guided Boise State to back-to-back conference championships and hasn't lost a league game since 2001.
The selection of Bunting and Kilian to the All-WAC team mirrors TU's rags-to-riches story. Bunting was a lightly recruited prospect from Holland Hall who blossomed into an immediate impact player. Kilian was a backup last season to former starter Tyler Gooch, who transferred to Oklahoma to play baseball. Kilian outdueled players with bigger reputations, like Hawaii's Timmy Chang and Louisiana Tech's Luke McCown, to earn second-team All-WAC recognition.
Chadwick has played in 47 career games, including 31 starts. He was a factor in the offensive line, considered a team weakness in 2002, which showed significant improvement in '03.
Mills led the Hurricane with 50 catches and nine touchdown receptions, second-most nationally by a tight end.
Bryant led Tulsa and ranked sixth among WAC players with 734 receiving yards.
Alexander and LeDet, a junior college transfer, are TU's first- and second-leading tacklers. Hope produced a team-best 11 pass break-ups and intercepted three passes.
Four Hurricane players -- tight end Caleb Blankenship, running back Eric Richardson, defensive end Jeremy Davis and linebacker Jorma Bailey -- were honorable mention All-WAC.
