Charlotte football earns stunning OT win over Tulsa behind walk-on QB Trexler Ivey
From walk-on to a season-saving walk-off victory, Trexler Ivey has earned his scholarship with the Charlotte 49ers.
The first meeting between Charlotte and Tulsa had nearly everything, and Ivey’s game-winning drive kept the 49ers’ bowl hopes alive with a 33-26 overtime victory at Tulsa. In a game in which Charlotte trailed by 17 points early, Ivey led a lead-changing drive with less than a minute to play in regulation and followed that with an overtime tush-push touchdown from one yard out to complete the 49ers’ comeback victory.
Dealing with injuries at quarterback, multiple suspensions, and a three-score deficit in the first 20 minutes of action, head coach Biff Poggi was impressed with his team’s resilience on the road.
“Tonight was an amazing show of toughness, grittiness and playing for one another. We weren’t playing with a full hand with injuries and those who were suspended,” Poggi said. “I think these kids really came together. I thought we could’ve gotten boat raced the way we were playing, and then we just kept fighting. I thought Mike Miller called an unbelievable game.”
With Ivey at the helm, Charlotte’s offense mounted its highest yardage and scoring output of the season, moving the ball for 431 yards and putting 33 points on the board on the road. Ivey completed 20 of his 28 passes for 257 yards and two combined touchdowns on the night.
Poggi told the ESPN+ broadcast that Ivey “is a walk-on, and he won’t be for long” following the victory. In his first overtime game, Ivey didn’t blink. And despite a crucial red zone fumble with two minutes to play in regulation, the redshirt sophomore answered emphatically with consecutive touchdown drives.
Right after celebrating his first game-winning drive as a 49er, Ivey was focused on Charlotte’s future.
“It’s a cool feeling that all of the hard work has started to pay off,” said Ivey. “But I’m looking forward to taking the next step and not just earning a scholarship but earning the starting job for the whole year and taking this team to the next level.
“That was the first-ever overtime game I’ve ever played in,” Ivey continued. “Our offense had all of the momentum. We had driven right down the field twice at the end of the game, and I made a pretty bad mistake at the end of one of those drives, dropping the snap. Once we got in the end zone the first time, we were rolling. “The guys that we had in that locker room tonight — we got who we got, and that’s all we need.”
Back and forth frenzy
Charlotte’s sideline was ready to explode following Ivey’s overtime touchdown, but for the second consecutive road game, it came down to the defense to cement the victory.
After losing starting quarterback Cardell Williams in the second quarter, Tulsa head coach Kevin Wilson went with freshman walk-on Kirk Francis over their backup, Braylon Braxton. After leading a touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter, it was on Francis to knot the game at 33 and force a double overtime.
Francis nearly threw the game to linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green on the drive’s first play, and Charlotte cornerback Dontae Balfour ultimately sealed the victory two plays later, reeling in the first interception of his collegiate career.
“That was big for him. Big time players make big time plays in big time games, and he’s that kind of player,” Hill-Green said of Balfour. “We trust him, and we called coverage for him to be one-on-one and he came up big. I’m proud of him for it.”
Despite barely missing his own game-sealing interception in overtime, Hill-Green’s 11-tackle performance — including two tackles for loss, a pass breakup and a forced fumble — kept the 49ers alive late in regulation. Following Ivey’s fumble inside the Golden Hurricane’s five-yard line in the game’s final minutes, Tulsa had a chance to ice the game, nursing a five-point lead. Charlotte’s defense forced the key three and out, and Hill-Green’s game-saving tackle on third-and-one made way for Ivey’s heroics.
Fool Green once, shame on you. But if you fooled him, he can’t get fooled again.
“They ran the same play two plays in a row,” Hill-Green said after the game. “I just felt like, as a man and as the middle linebacker, am I going to let them run the same play twice in a row and get one yard? I literally told the defense if they run that play again, I’m stopping them. That’s what I did.”
After spotting Tulsa 17 points early, Charlotte’s defense changed the game late in the second quarter when Hill-Green forced a fumble, resulting in the 49ers’ first touchdown of the day — a one-yard plunge from Terron Kellman.
Charlotte added a safety on a blocked punt by Reid Williford and consecutive field goals from Kyle Cunanan to take their first lead of the game with 18 unanswered points, but Tulsa continued to fight back with tailback Anthony Watkins finding the endzone for the game’s fourth lead change with five minutes to play and kicker Chase Meyer connecting on a game-tying 27-yard field goal in the final seconds of regulation.
Ivey added: “Definitely one of the craziest games I’ve ever played in.”
Charlotte battled for four quarters in a hostile environment, and Hill-Green and the 49ers are focused on finishing the final quarter of their season on a positive.
“We were just talking about it in the locker room. We’re aware that (Memphis) is a good team, but we’re a good team, too,” Hill-Green said. It doesn’t matter who we have out there, it’s a next-man-up mentality and we’re just ready to go compete and win. We’re not going to cower down to anyone. Upward from here.”
What’s next?
Charlotte took step one toward achieving bowl eligibility for the second time in program history Saturday night and will need to rattle off three more wins to complete the feat, starting with Memphis on military appreciation day at Richardson Stadium next Saturday, Nov. 11.
The 49ers’ final quarter of the season includes a matchup with the Tigers (7-2, 4-1 AAC), a senior day bout against a much-improved Rice (4-4, 2-2 AAC) team, and a season-ending road trip to Tampa to take on South Florida (4-5, 2-3 AAC).
With Eyabi Okie-Anoma, Stone Handy and Al-Ma’hi Ali returning from suspension and a hopeful outlook as far as injuries go, Charlotte is looking to build on its second American Athletic Conference victory of the year.
“We just have to keep building off of the good things we did. We’ll get some good guys back from injury, and I’ll be more healthy and I know Jalon (Jones) will be a lot more healthy,” Ivey said. “We’ll use that confidence in what we did tonight and go into next week. We have a good team in Memphis, but we’re a great team, and we’re doing some really good things. Let’s keep it rolling.”
Notes
▪ Wideout Jairus Mack played his best collegiate game in the victory, reeling in seven of his 11 targets for 127 yards, including a long of 51 yards in the final five minutes of action.
▪ After amounting 21 penalties over the past two games, Charlotte was penalized just four times on the night for 35 yards.
▪ Charlotte recorded 10 chunk plays in the victory, resulting in 295 of their 431 total yards.
▪ Tailback Henry Rutledge turned in the best performance of his career in the victory, needing just seven touches to record a combined 104 yards, including a long of 55 yards on a pitch from Ivey. After running the same motion pattern and converting the tush-push against Florida Atlantic last week, offensive coordinator Mike Miller’s wrinkle was a fake tush-push pitch, fooling the Golden Hurricane defense and allowing Rutledge a wide-open sideline.
▪ Wideout Jack Hestera didn’t reel in a catch until the final drive of regulation but answered when it mattered most, catching passes of 35 and 18 yards, finding the endzone on the latter for his third touchdown of the season.
▪ Cunanan was 3 of 4 on field goal attempts on the night, missing his first – badly – from 39 yards out. Punter and holder Grant Gonya botched the hold, but redeemed himself as Cunanan connected from 22, 23 and 49 yards out.
▪ Tulsa moved the ball for 412 yards on the game, possessing the ball for 29:42 of game clock.
▪ Tailback Anthony Watkins carried the ball 24 times for 146 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
