2025 Tulsa Football Predictions: Golden Hurricanes Ranked 127th in RJ Young's Ultimate 136

By RJ Young
Updated Aug. 10, 2025 9:32 p.m. ET

This isn't your average college football ranking.

My Ultimate 136 is a set of rankings that is fluid, but it's my job to look ahead and make a claim for all FBS teams based on what I know and why I know it. Here are the three pressing questions I started by asking when putting together this list:

  • Who do I think is good?
  • Why do I think they're good?
  • What are the chances they will finish above or below my expectations?

Here is a look at where Tulsa lands in my Ultimate 136.

Tulsa ranking: 127
Last year’s ranking: 119 (in Ultimate 134)
Top player: RB Dominic Richardson: Has appeared in 45 career games between his time at Baylor and Oklahoma State, rushing for 1,767 yards and 16 TDs.

[Tulsa's 2025 schedule]

RJ's take: All right, this here is my alma mater. This here is my hometown. This here is where I graduated high school. And we suck. I hate it here, bringing up the rear in a race where we're being unmercifully and tauntingly lapped.

Enter 35-year-old Tre Lamb, who flipped Directional State Tennessee — East Tennessee State for the uninitiated (and if I offended you) — from 3-8 to 7-5 after leading Gardner-Webb to FCS playoff bids in 2022 and 2023. He inherits Kirk Francis – a local man who done good – at QB but who has yet to throw touchdowns or complete more than 59% of his passes in a season. Maybe pairing him with former All-World and Tulsa Edison RB Sevion Morrison and Baylor back Dominic Richardson will allow the offense to function with something like a pulse and not like a resident at Oaklawn Cemetery.

Four-straight years of being flat out bad at a school that produced four Pro Football Hall of Famers and two first round picks in the last five years is quite enough. 

Fix it, Tre. Get Tulsa off this train ride to bleak obscurity before it meets its terminus in oblivion.

[Check out RJ Young's Ultimate 136 College Football Rankings here]

Tulsa Win Total Odds: Over 3.5 (-115) Under 3.5 (-105)

Have an issue with my rankings? Think your alma mater is too low, or your school's rival is too high? Get at me on X, @RJ_Young, and I'll select my favorite tweets and respond to them in a future article.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young.