Philip Montgomery took Tulsa from 10 losses to 10 wins in 2 years

Life in college football’s Group of 5 conferences is one of constant resets. If you succeed, you’re quickly looking for a new coach. If you fail, you’re quickly looking for a new coach.

That is perhaps doubly true for the young coach incubator that is the American Athletic Conference. Of its 12 football teams, eight have replaced their head coaches since last December. UCF, East Carolina, Tulane, and Cincinnati searched for better results; Memphis, Houston, USF, and Temple did because they were too successful.

By staying in place for two straight years, Tulsa’s Philip Montgomery has already become one of the deans of the AAC. But he might not be around much longer. The 44-year-old Tarleton State (Texas) alum needed only two years to drag Tulsa from a 2-10 abyss to a 10-3 campaign.

Tulsa’s used to turnarounds and turnbackarounds — 2-22 in 2001-02, 38-16 in 2005-08, 5-7 in 2009, 29-11 in 2010-12, 5-19 in 2013-14 — but this was impressive. And as far as culminations go, the Golden Hurricane’s 55-10 romp over CMU in the Miami Beach Bowl was impressive.

Tulsa scored on each of its first nine possessions of the game, but a couple of early field goals kept CMU in striking distance. The Golden Hurricane only led by a 13-3 margin when they took the ball back midway through the second quarter.

Then they found fifth gear. They marched 80 yards in eight plays and 2:43 for a touchdown, forced a three-and-out, then went 62 yards in nine plays and 1:55. Suddenly it was 27-3 at halftime, and the first two times they touched the ball in the second half, they went 56 yards in 1:44 and 62 yards in 1:10. They capped this absurd run with a downright lackadaisical, 10-play, 3:05 touchdown drive late in the third quarter.

That’s 42 points in barely 10 minutes of actually possessing the ball.

And then they capped the scoring with a 66-yard pick-six from Jesse Brubaker. Guess that technically means 49 points in barely 10 minutes of possession.

This is what Tulsa does. Montgomery was Art Briles’ offensive co-coordinator at Baylor from 2008-11, then his sole coordinator from 2012-14. Briles’ toxic image will make Montgomery’s job stock hard to discern over the next year or two — How much is he judged for Briles’ actions? — but in terms of on-field exploits, Montgomery’s offense resembles Baylor’s in all the right ways.

Tulsa finishes 2016 fourth in total offense (527 yards per game), 10th in scoring offense (42.5 points per game), and first for now in total plays (1,114, 85.7 per game), all while averaging fewer than 30 minutes per game of possession.

The Golden Hurricane entered 2016 30th in Off. S&P+ and probably won’t move down after gaining 581 yards in 85 snaps.

Two years ago, they were 95th in Off. S&P+. This didn’t take long.

Over Dan Enos’ final three years in charge at CMU, the Chippewas went 7-6, 6-6, and 7-6. In two years under John Bonamego, they’ve gone 7-6 and 6-7. They have entered college football’s Groundhog Day.

CMU was neither great nor terrible at almost anything in 2016. They entered Monday’s game 74th in Off. S&P+ and 75th in Def. S&P+. (Last year: 82nd and 60th, respectively. The year before that: 90th and 84th.) They are almost perfect in their mediocrity.

Though this season ended up just about the same as the others, there’s some more to be upset about this time around. Quarterback Cooper Rush is a senior, and the Chippewas began the year 5-2 with a romp over UNLV, a road win over Northern Illinois, and an all-time, shouldn’t-have-counted finish against Oklahoma State.

To go from that to a 6-7 finish and an embarrassing bowl loss is more than disappointing. The Chips lost tight games to Eastern Michigan on the road (semi-forgivable) and Kent State at home (less so), then got pantsed on national television. And now they have to replace their quarterback.

In my 2016 CMU preview, I noted that Bonamego had his team ahead of schedule. That is no longer the case.