Asked whether he could envision a situation in which he and Briles were on the same staff again, Montgomery said: “We haven’t been in a scenario like we are now. If that were to happen, that would be great.

“I’ve learned so much from him. We’ll just see what the future holds. … He loves coaching and he loves kids. This is his passion. He definitely wants to coach again.”

A year ago, the biggest TU storyline centered on the departures of co-offensive coordinators Sterlin Gilbert and Matt Mattox to Texas, which seemingly refused to take no for an answer and flew the university president, athletic director and head coach to Tulsa to persuade Gilbert after an initial rejection.

The only current drama surrounding the Hurricane involves fitting bowl practices in a short period of time, scheduling around finals and preparing for the logistics of a football game played inside a baseball stadium.

“We’ve been able to really just focus on our football team and you don’t have the outside distractions part of it,” Montgomery said. “At this stage, you hope it’s that well-oiled machine that you just kind of have to keep rolling.”