Klinck, defense up to the task
By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer
10/23/2005
Unit played strong when it needed to.
Senior safety Bobby Klinck gave up SMU's 47-yard pass play in the second quarter, and defensive coordinator Todd Graham challenged him to make up for it.
"I said, 'you owe me a play, Bobby,' and he gave me two," Graham said with a smile.
In fact, Klinck gave his coach three -- three takeways that helped Tulsa ease past the Mustangs 20-13 Saturday to retain sole possession of first place in Conference USA's West Division.
Klinck recovered a fumble in the first quarter and ended SMU's final two possessions with takeways. He recovered a fumble caused by Bobby Blackshire with 5:20 left and made a looking-back-over-the-shoulder interception of Jerad Romo's last pass with 1:16 left.
"I was trying to play turnover football and I gave up that long pass," said Klinck, who returned a fumble for a touchdown at Rice last week.
"I was supposed to be in deep coverage, and the quarterback was looking the other way and I just got off my man, kind of drifted, and that was it. So, I decided to start playing regular football," Klinck said.
The Hurricane kept getting into hot water -- and making up for it -- all afternoon. It forced a field goal after Romo's 47-yard pass
to Chris Foster allowed the Mustangs to reach the Tulsa 3-yard line in the second quarter, and forced another when SMU drove to the TU 2 early in the fourth.
Each time, the Mustangs had a chance to take the lead but came away with a tie.
"We did a good job of knocking them back when they got down in there and making them settle for field goals," said head coach Steve Kragthorpe. "I thought the biggest thing was that we didn't give up touchdowns in those situations."
Romo's big plays and Hurricane penalties kept the defense moving backward. Tulsa's C-USA title hopes teetered when Bobby Chase's 28-yard catch and run helped SMU drive to the TU 2, trailing 13-10, in the fourth quarter. Then, junior defensive end Robert Latu made a big play.
Latu buried SMU's DeMyron Martin for a 4-yard loss on third down.
"Everybody did their job, and it was just a great call by the coaches," Latu said. "They tried to run a delay and pulled the guard right in front of me and I was free (to make the tackle)."
Said Kragthorpe: "I thought it was huge again, to knock them back there. I thought maybe in that situation, if they had gotten into a fourth-and-1, they might go for (a touchdown)."
Instead, McMurtray trotted out to kick his second field goal and SMU never got the lead. Just over a minute later, Paul Smith threw 66 yards to Garrett Mills for a touchdown and TU was ahead to stay.
Graham said the Hurricane ran a defense it hadn't practiced all week to stop SMU's third-down play.
"That's how smart these kids are. We make an adjustment on the sideline during the timeout because they're running a unique scheme against it. We got to it, and BANG, we stick them," Graham said.
