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🏈 Recruiting Dallas-area DB checks out Tulsa

2025 Dallas (TX) Lake Highlands safety Ayden Webb has seen his recruitment heat up over the past two months. Tulsa was one of the first programs to extend an offer, and Webb was on the TU campus last month to watch spring practice.

TU Alums / Drillers --Game & Ticket Info...

Join the Tulsa Chapter of the TU Alumni Association for a baseball game

and buffet lunch on Sunday, April 28! Bring your family and friends along

to connect with the True Blue community at the Tulsa Drillers,

all ages are welcome!



Alumni Afternoon at the Drillers
Sunday, April 28
Gates Open: 12:00 p.m.

First Pitch: 1:05 p.m.
Coors Light Refinery Deck
ONEOK Field
201 N Elgin Ave.

Tulsa, OK
For more information, contact the Office of Alumni Engagement at
tualumni@utulsa.edu or 918-631-2555.​

TU Legend DT to Retire

Don Tomkalski, the longest tenured employee in the athletic department, is retiring after 40 years. He’s pretty much at every game and getting stats and records to the media. A Tulsa legend.



Best burger in Tulsa?

Went to lunch at Bill's Jumbo Burgers and this dawned on me as a good topic. As a rule, I'm telling you up front these should be locally owned/operated places and generally not chains, as opposed to McDonald's and Red Robin. I'm looking for local places . . . you can get that kind of chain stuff anywhere. Plus, if you post it I'll make fun of you.

My list:
1) Bill's Jumbo Burgers; Xanthus and Admiral. Funky little wooden building. Weird fundamentalist stuff on the walls. Really damn good. Has always been really damn good.
2) Weber's; Brookside. This place doesn't get enough love. Root beer is really the draw (get the root beer freeze). The comination of great root beer and burgers makes it #2.
3) JJ's; 6th and Peoria. Weird as hell. Overpriced. Doesn't keep normal hours. Don't call it a hamburger, whatever you do. Gourmet ribeye burgers are great.
4) Claude's; Brookside. They finally got rid of the "we grind our own meat" sign a few years back. Always got a laugh out of that since they are across the street from a funeral home. Anywho, nothin' wrong with this place at all. Good prices, too. Got food poisoning there once, so it's lower on my list than the quality indicates.
5) (My curveball) The Mediterranean burger at Wild Fork; feta and other good Greek stuff on pita. I thought my lady was nuts when ordered this. Now I live for it.
6) Green bean burger at Brother's Houlighan; weird, but strangely wonderful.
7) Ron's. Ron's used to be an easy #1. But they moved in around the corner from me and I've become a regular. I've decided that their frito chili pie and chicken are better than their burgers. Their burgers are very good, but I'm not sure they are as good as they used to be.


There are others, but I must stop or I'll have to eat something.

FWIW, I'm not ranking the McNellie's burger because I think it's the most overrated thing in this town since Hanson. Nice burger, not remotely worth the hysteria on Wednesday nights.

NIL Effects On The NFL Draft

I found the information interesting.
Didn't realize the numbers for younger players entering the draft are down.

Entering NFL Draft, Chiefs + other teams are learning it can pay to stay in school
Entering NFL Draft, Chiefs + other teams are learning it can pay to stay in school
BY BLAIR KERKHOFF
BKERKHOFF@KCSTAR.COM
10 hours ago
This week’s NFL Draft marks a shift in the age of prospects. There are 58 early entrants, the fewest the league has seen since 2011.

From 2016-2022, more than 100 early entrants — players three years removed from their high school graduating class — had entered the draft.

Brett Veach knows why.

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“This is just the NIL effect,” the Chiefs general manager said.

Colleges athletes can profit from their name, image and likeness. Those numbers aren’t public. The NFL minimum salary for a rookie in 2024 is $795,000. An NIL deal might not approach that figure, but it could be good enough for the player to remain in school and perhaps improve his draft stock.

This is making the 2024 draft “older” than previous editions over the past decade. To Veach, that will be especially evident in the middle to late rounds.

“Typically when you’re working through the fourth, fifth and six rounds,” he noted, “there’s always interesting prospects and small-school guys.”

But now the Chiefs and other NFL teams are seeing those candidates as older players.

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“They have the opportunity to stay in school,” Veach said. “So we have to work a little bit harder to find some young guys with upside that you really like.”

NIL became policy with a Supreme Court ruling in 2021. In the ensuing NFL Draft, held in April 2022, 100 underclassmen entered the draft, 28 fewer than the previous year. The number dropped to 82 in 2023.

Among the underclassmen in this year’s draft, which begins on Thursday, are Missouri cornerback Ennis Rakestraw, Jr. and Kansas edge Austin Booker.

Also affecting the profile of this year’s draft is the extra year of eligibility granted to college players because of the COVID-shortened 2020 season. It’s paid, figuratively and literally, for athletes to stay in school.

The Chiefs have found great value in the later rounds of recent drafts, especially on defense. Cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, a standout who was assigned to the opponent’s top receiver, was taken in the fourth round of the 2019 draft out of Louisiana Tech. Sneed was traded to the Tennessee Titans last month for a third-round pick next season and a swap of seventh-round picks this year.

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Joshua Williams was a 2022 fourth-round selection from Fayetteville State. In the same draft, the Chiefs selected Jaylen Watson in the seventh round from Washington State. Both were part of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl-champion defensive rotation the past two years.

They weren’t early entrants. But they were part of a deeper draft pool .... which, according to Veach, improved the overall quality of the draft class in which they each was selected.

“When you have a ton of underclassmen putting their name in and decide to (leave college) that makes every draft deeper,” Veach said. “When guys are staying in (college), it’s going to make the draft a little tougher to work with on the back end.”
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🏈 Recruiting Sherman athlete talks Tulsa and recruiting

Sherman (TX) athlete Kane Bowen plays both running back and linebacker, and he’s garnered recruiting interest from Tulsa and others. TU coaches offered the 6-foot-2 and 220-pounder back in December, and Bowen attended a Tulsa junior day in March.


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🏈 Recruiting 2025 Recruiting Summary: Articles, visits, junior days, offers, etc.

To follow all of our 2024, 2025 and 2026 Tulsa football recruiting coverage, don't miss all the inside scoop in HURRICANE ALLEY -- Start getting your daily fill of Golden Hurricane news with a subscription to ITS. Our Hurricane Alley forum is the only place on the planet with daily news and discussion on TU athletics.

All of our feature articles are on the front page of ITS, but there is so much more info in Hurricane Alley, including:

• In-depth discussions of trending TU football & basketball topics, with exclusive info from our journalists and program insiders.

• Exclusive updates on TU football & basketball recruiting targets, current roster updates, Junior Day visits, official visits, etc.

• A closer look at TU transfer portal targets, JUCO targets and high school recruiting targets, plus complete offer lists for each class.

• The very best info on coaching searches, signing classes, roster changes, NIL, recruiting breakdowns, game coverage and so much more.

TU Soccer 2023

Starting a new thread about the upcoming Fall season. Schedule is on the web site as well as the roster. TU has added some interesting pieces to the mix for this season, a lot of international flair (German and Spanish). Biggest ? will be can Richnow and Bottenburg replace Fazio in the middle and who will be the 6 replacing Sach? I think the 6 role might come down to Luke Jeffus or Sergio Baena although I think Baena is better suited to the attacking MF roles in the favored 4-3-3 TU plays. I know last year Dalby played in that role a little but his game lacks some of the speed, vision, and physicality Sach brought to it.

TU will obviously be missing Mitchell Cashion and his ability to be a dynamic player from a fullback spot. I do think TU will be able to score plenty of goals this season. MHS is back along with Taka Wyett.

Season starts vs UMKC on August 11th in an exhibition match. Will be a good test for TU and a chance to get some players looks. 1st regular game is August 24th vs Louisville. Creighton comes in for a midweek match on Sept. 19th. We also play UNLV, Drake, & Missouri State in non-conference games.

TU will have its hands full in the AAC as I expect the conference to be even better than it was last season.
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🏈 Recruiting Mansfield Summit DL enjoys Tulsa junior day

Tulsa extended a scholarship offer to Mansfield (TX) Summit defensive end Travis Buhake back in January, and he’s racked up several more offers since then. The 2025 prospect attended a junior day at TU last month and came away impressed.


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