After eight seasons and a 43-53 record, Philip Montgomery was fired by Tulsa on Sunday. It’s a solid AAC job, but there are a lot of financial restrictions with it, and we hear those are only getting tighter.

Montgomery led Tulsa to four bowl games and became the first coach to post multiple wins over top-20 teams in the same season (2020). He was the first Tulsa coach to turn around two NFL first-round draft picks and led the Hurricane to the 2020 AAC Championship Game. His best season was in 2016, when he led Tulsa to a 10-3 record and a Miami Beach Bowl victory.

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TU has a couple of young offensive options with ties to the school who are expected to get close looks in this search.

Former Tulsa players

G.J. Kinne, Incarnate Word head coach

The former Tulsa starting QB could emerge as the favorite for this vacancy. The 33-year-old Texas native and 2010 Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year, has had a spectacular season in his first year as a head coach, leading FCS Incarnate Word to a 10-1 record and a Southland Conference championship. Included in those 10 wins is a 55-41 victory over FBS opponent Nevada, and Kinne has led the Cardinals to the highest national ranking in program history, No. 4. Behind Kinne, the Cardinals threw for a program-record 52 touchdowns and set a team rushing record for the season with 2,355 yards. His team, ranked No. 5, plays No. 11 Furman in the FCS playoffs on Dec. 3.

Brennan Marion, Texas passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach

One of Kinne’s former college teammates, Marion was a Tulsa standout as a receiver and has also risen up the coaching ranks. Marion helped Jordan Addison win the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver last year while at Pitt before moving on to Texas as the passing game coordinator. The 35-year-old used his “Go-Go” offense to put up big numbers as an FCS offensive coordinator at Howard and William & Mary before he moved up to FBS. Expect Marion to get strong consideration for this job.

Former FBS head coaches

Four former FBS head coaches with deep Oklahoma roots who we think also will be in play are Arkansas DC Barry Odom, Purdue WR coach Garrick McGee, former Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente and OU analyst Matt Wells.

Barry Odom, Arkansas defensive coordinator

Odom, 46, was 25-25 in five seasons at Mizzou, his alma mater. Odom has been in the mix for a couple of FBS head coaching jobs over the past few years and has come very close.

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Garrick McGee, Purdue wide receivers coach

McGee, 49, grew up in Tulsa and played QB at OU. He spent only two seasons as the head coach at UAB, going 5-19, but he might be in line for another look. As an OC at Louisville, he helped develop Lamar Jackson into a Heisman Trophy winner, and at Arkansas he had a role in some explosive offenses. This fall, he’s helped Purdue win the Big Ten West and produced the league’s most productive wideout in Iowa transfer Charlie Jones, who has a league-best 97 catches for 1,199 yards.

Justin Fuente, former Virginia Tech head coach

The 46-year-old Fuente, a Tulsa native, deserves a lot of credit for pumping life into a dormant Memphis program, winning 19 games in his final two seasons. He had a nice start rebuilding after Hokies great Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech, winning 19 games in his first two seasons there before things fizzled out.

Matt Wells, Oklahoma offensive analyst

Wells, 49, did a very good job at Utah State, winning 10 games twice before leaving for Texas Tech, where he struggled to get much traction before he was fired into his third season.

Mickey Joseph, former Nebraska interim head coach

Joseph, who stabilized the Nebraska program as interim head coach, went 3-6 this season and is expected to be in the mix. Joseph, 54, has a lot of juice as a recruiter and displayed some real leadership amid tough circumstances with the Cornhuskers. He also has ties to the athletic director from their time together earlier in their careers.

(Photo of Justin Fuente: Reinhold Matay / USA Today)