By Jordan Beech

It’s been a busy off-season for former Oklahoma State and Yukon coach Bill Young.  After taking the position of defensive line coach at Southern Methodist on Dec. 8 of last year, Billy Embody of PonyStampede.com is reporting that Young will be hired as the defensive coordinator at Tulsa under new head coach Phillip Montgomery.  Kelly Hines of the Tulsa World confirmed the report.  Young is just the second coach to serve as the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma, OSU and Tulsa.

Young spent the 2014 season as the head coach of the Yukon High School football team.  In his only     year at the helm, Young led the Millers to a 4-6 record.  The team overcame a rash of injuries early in the season during the inaugural year of 6A-I to go 1-3 to open the season before a sitting at a 4-4 record with two games left. Yukon dropped games against both Westmoore and Jenks to be eliminated from postseason contention.

The former OSU defensive coordinator will now be tasked with revamping a defense that ranked 119th in scoring defense, allowing 39.3 points per contest.  The Golden Hurricane also gave up 486.8 yards per game and 6.95 yards per play, ranking in the bottom fifth of defenses during the 2014 season.

Tulsa will be returning leading tackler Michael Mudoh.  The junior safety finished with 113 total tackles, including a team-high 55 solos and 1.5 tackles for loss.  He also intercepted two passes and had two pass breakups while also forcing two fumbles and recovering one.  The Golden Hurricane will also return two of its other top five tacklers in redshirt freshman linebacker Craig Suits (81.0 tackles) and sophomore linebacker Trent Martin (64.0 tackles).

The Golden Hurricane will open the 2015 season on Saturday, Sept. 5 against Florida Atlantic.  They will then travel to Norman two weeks later to face in-state foe OU on Sept. 19.  Young, whose defense held the Sooners to just 10 points in the 2011 edition of Bedlam, will look to repeat the feat.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *