TULSA -- Alan Lamar settled under a kickoff for the 32nd time in his college career. Taking the ball at the Arkansas State 7-yard-line, the graduate student headed for the right sideline, eyeing an alley.
Lamar then shed a tackler grabbing at his left leg, changed directions at the 40 and made his way toward the Tulsa sideline before scoring 60 yards later. And when he did, the Olive Branch, Miss., native let out a yell.
"It's an unreal feeling," Lamar said of the feeling after his first special teams score since high school. "I can't really describe it but it's amazing."
Last week, Red Wolves Coach Butch Jones repeatedly said the Golden Hurricane use almost no starters on their kick and punt units, something he says demonstrates the depth of a team's roster.
And though ASU may not have all the pieces Jones desires in his first year as head coach, Lamar's 93-yard kick return and Johnnie Lang Jr.'s 63-yard punt return -- both of which went for touchdowns -- led a banner day for the Red Wolves' special teams, making for an unlikely bright spot on an otherwise dour evening in a 41-34 loss at H.A. Chapman Stadium.
"I don't think I've been in a game in a long time ... where we had a kickoff return and a punt return for a touchdown," Jones said. "I thought we dominated the special teams game. We work exceptionally hard in special teams. We were making progress in the kickoff return game. ... [Our kids have] really bought into what we're teaching them."
Lamar's score may have been more noteworthy, particularly because it was part of a performance in which he piled up 178 kick return yards -- the fourth-most in ASU history -- but Lang's touchdown was easily the more impressive.
With Tulsa backed up all the way in its own end zone, the former Iowa State tailback retreated to his own 37 and made the initial defender miss before heading toward the Red Wolves' bench and breaking a trio of tackles in the process.
The two scores were undoubtedly crucial, keeping ASU in another game where its defense surrendered 600-plus yards and 41 points. But fortunately for Tulsa, which entered the day as one of the worst special teams units in the nation per Pro Football Focus, they were by no means death knells.
"If you give up two returns in special teams, I would say 99% of the time you don't win the game," Golden Hurricane Coach Philip Montgomery said postgame. "That crap can't happen. It should never happen."
Punter Ryan Hanson pinned Tulsa inside its own 15 three times, with the second setting up Lang's score, and kicker Blake Grupe reached the 300-point plateau with his final kick of the night.
The 50-yard field goal was not only the longest of Grupe's career -- breaking his previous best of 48 yards, set two weeks ago against Memphis -- but it was ASU's first field goal of 50 yards or longer since 2013. That made Grupe the third Red Wolf with 300 career points, as the redshirt senior chases down Brian Davis (326) and Richie Woit (342).
Grupe's penultimate field goal, a 38-yarder in the waning stages of the third quarter, sent him into third place on the Sun Belt's all-time scoring list as well -- he needs 19 points to pass Louisiana-Lafayette's Elijah Maguire and then another eight to go ahead of Davis, who sits atop the conference record books after holding down ASU's kicking job from 2010-13.
"If I don't make kicks, then none of them matter," Grupe said recently of the records. "Some days you may not feel right, but when you have those things on your mind, it's pretty easy to just keep going and keep working."