Today we all went to see the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricanes play the University of Houston Cougars at TU's Skelly Field/Chapman Stadium, the last game before a $20 million renovation begins. Coming into the game Tulsa was 6-3 (4-2 in league) while Houston was 6-3 (5-1 in league). Houston would have clinched the West Division of the Conference USA with a win today. But it was not to be.

It was Senior Day and Tulsa's senor quarterback, Paul Smith #12, had the game of his life in a 56-7 blowout of Houston. Smith threw for 313 passing yards with 5 touchdown throws and, on a 37 yard pass in the third quarter to Dion Toliver #15, Smith broke the single-season passing record with 3,496 yards, broke the career-passing record with 9,367 yards and tied the record for most touchdown passes in a single season with 34. Paul Smith left the field, his last home game for TU, with a standing ovation.

Tulsa held Houston scoreless 56-0 until late in the fourth quarter when Houston scored their only touchdown against Tulsa's 2nd sting.

Here you can see wide receiver Jesse Meyer #84 about to make a catch; running back Tarrion Adams #25 on the run; quarterback Paul Smith #12 making a handoff to running/defensive back Dillon Brumbugh #23; and punter Paul Jurado #48 holding for place kicker Jarod Tracy #29 who was a perfect 8 for 8 for the day (49 out of 50 for the season).

We even got to see a handsome young man propose to his cheerleading future bride...she said yes. One of the reasons we attended today was that Aunt Catherine is on the University of Tulsa Dance Team, but she is out with an injury and unable to perform.

Click "Continue reading" to see a multi-photo stop-motion breakdown of a successful play by TU.

Finally, at some point I put the camera on continuous shooting and caught a nice sequence of photos showing the anatomy of a football play. Click the photo for a larger popup showing the ball in the air on the snap, quarterback Paul Smith #12 fake handoff to running back Tarrion Adams #25, the handoff to running back Dillon Brumbugh#23 and his progress up the line behind some textbook blocking. It's interesting to focus on different players throughout the sequence to see how everyone carries out their own individual task and how it all comes together to accomplish a desired collective goal. Teamwork in action!