It was a night when host Tulsa, predicted by reporters to finish last in the Western Athletic Conference, overcame a 13-point deficit against the league's preseason favorite for an astonishing 27-16 victory at Skelly Stadium.

It was the sort of night that ended with the Hurricane players dancing to the boom-boom-boom beat of the Tulsa Marching Band while in the opposing locker room, the Warriors buried their faces in towels, with the showers providing the only sounds.

In a declaration of independence from consecutive one-victory seasons, Tulsa quarterback James Kilian, who scored a touchdown and led a 24-0 surge, pronounced, "This is huge."

Meanwhile, UH strong safety Hyrum Peters, his eyes reddened with frustration, implored teammates to forget "all of the bull and get ready for next week."

UH linebacker Ikaika Curnan, unrolling a blood-stained sock, said: "Our trip back home is going to seem even longer. It's going to (be tough) making the trip after this loss."

To be sure, this was unexpected, despite hints Tulsa (3-2, 1-0 WAC) was much improved under first-year coach Steve Kragthorpe, most recently the Buffalo Bills' quarterbacks coach. Kragthorpe implemented an innovative offense, reshaped the defense into an attacking scheme and invited former Tulsa players to serve as mentors and inspirational speakers.

All of which appeared to mean little when the Warriors (2-3, 1-1 WAC) stormed to a 16-3 lead in the second quarter, in part to running back West Keliikipi's two scoring runs. But their lead was written in chalk. Ahead 13-3 with the ball inside the Tulsa 10, the Warriors settled for Justin Ayat's 25-yard field goal. UH would not score again.

"I knew when we didn't score a touchdown ... it would come back to haunt us," UH coach June Jones said.

Tulsa offensive lineman Austin Chadwick said: "I didn't know if we could go toe to toe with them, but we felt if we stuck to our game plan and kept working hard, eventually we would get the momentum."

For Tulsa, the defensive plan was to protect against long passes by aligning defensive backs Shannon Carter and Kedrick Alexander, in zone coverage, 15 to 20 yards from the line of scrimmage. The cornerbacks were instructed to "re-route" the UH wideouts with bump-and-run tactics.

"We had a lot of film on them and we knew they liked to take their vertical shots, maybe three or four a quarter," left cornerback Jermaine Hope said. "On their films, we noticed they take long shots to get down the field on teams. We wanted to re-route their receivers, mess up their timing. Mostly we wanted to keep the ball in front of us, make them try to beat us with short passes. We felt they wouldn't be patient enough to do that."

That was the case in the second quarter, when Chang tried to force a pass to Jason Rivers along the right sideline. Cornerback Oliver Fletcher intercepted, and four plays later, Kilian and wideout Richard McQuillar teamed on a 22-yard scoring pass, closing the Hurricane to 16-10.

On the front side of the 3-3-5 defensive alignment, Tulsa would blitz a defensive back or linebacker, creating chaotic conditions in the UH backfield and forcing Chang to look both ways before throwing. Not even shovel passes or runs off trap blocks could stabilize the Warriors' run-and-shoot offense.

"We ran the ball OK," Jones said, noting UH matched a season-high 27 rushes, "but it's not what we do. I felt I ran the ball too much."

But with three of his four starting receivers inactive because of suspension or injury, Jones believed he was forced into a game of ball control. Unfortunately for the Warriors, Tulsa's Kilian had the joystick.

Kilian is an unlikely Division I-A starter, having played eight-man football in high school and being named the Hurricane's No. 1 quarterback after last season's starter, Tyler Gooch, transferred to Oklahoma to play baseball. During the preceding bye week, Kragthorpe designed several plays with Kilian in mind.

"He's so multi-dimensional, it's important to keep the ball in his hands," Kragthorpe said.

Kilian completed 12 of 26 passes for 106 yards. He also ran 18 times for 115 yards, and caught two passes for 35 yards. On those plays, Kilian hands off to a receiver running a reverse, then races downfield.

"It's called a 'Rainbow' pass," Kilian said. "We were down and didn't want to save everything until the end, so we opened up the playbook."

In UH's man-to-man defensive coverage, nobody is assigned to pick up the quarterback after he hands off the football.

With the trick plays and Kilian's bootleg scrambles, UH defenders were at Tulsa's mercy.

"I think we did a good job of making (the defenders) run side to side early in the game, and we wore them out a little bit," Kragthorpe said.

As the second half progressed, Tulsa relied heavily on the running game, finishing with 285 rushing yards, mostly on speed sweeps to the perimeter. Jermaine Landrum's 15-yard run gave Tulsa a 20-16 lead with 11:06 left and Uril Parrish's 9-yard dash closed the scoring.

"It's about assignment and alignment," UH safety Peters said. "They ran a lot of trick plays, but we have to execute, no matter what. Now, we have to suck it up. We have to take the pain in, then try to fix it. We're going to learn from our mistakes."