Oklahoma defensive coordinator Mike Stoops was on his way down from the press box when Tulsa recovered an onside kick with 13 seconds remaining in the first half.
He joined secondary coach Kerry Cooks on the sideline just as the Golden Hurricane snapped the ball. Quarterback Dane Evans sat in the pocket and waited.
Evans eventually hurled a 43-yard bomb to Keyarris Garrett, who pulled it down in the end zone.
Just minutes before, Oklahoma was on the verge of taking a 38-10 lead over Tulsa heading into halftime. A Joe Mixon fumble on the 20 gave TU an opportunity to close the gap, however.
“I thought we were starting to separate there before the half,” Stoops said. “We had a chance to go up 38-10, and the next thing you know, it's 31-24. They scored 14 points in ... 13 seconds.
“That kind of threw us out of whack a little bit. We lost a little bit of rhythm in our defense. It put us back on our heels.”
The Sooners went from almost completely shutting down a Tulsa attack in the first half to giving up 603 yards, 427 of which were behind the arm of Evans.
The defensive performance was polar opposite of what was displayed just a week before at Tennessee, when it kept OU in the game for three and a half quarters as the offense struggled to get going.
“We still haven't come up with the right formula,” Stoops said. “It's very difficult, the way (Tulsa) stretch the field in a lot of ways. The matchups became tough. The speed of the game bothered us.”
Before Tulsa’s long touchdown pass — completing a 14-0 run in just 13 seconds — the Oklahoma secondary seemed like they had it all figured out.
“That's absolutely momentum for their side coming back out,” Cooks said. “They think that they got a chance to win the game.”
The defender responsible for Tulsa’s touchdown, freshman cornerback P.J. Mbanasor, wasn’t supposed to even be in the game. Sophomore Jordan Thomas, the usual starter, was suspended.
Cooks said the unit is using the bye week to make sure the more inexperienced players are prepared to play if a similar situation arises in the future.
“It's just the lack of effort,” Cooks said. “We've got a young guy back there at corner. And, again, it's a growing process for him. He's got to be deep as the deepest, and he lets a guy get behind him and doesn't finish the play.
“If he just stays on top of the route and just forces the guy out of bounds, we're not talking about it.”
