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An absurdly premature assessment of the 2010 Cougars.
Why they look familiar: Houston was a team twined with destiny in 2009, the designated BCS-busting darling for much of the early season stretch. Unfortunately, they were also twined with Conference USA West rival UTEP, which never ends well for anyone (usually including UTEP): The Cougars outduelled Big 12 favorites Oklahoma State and Texas Tech in back-to-back September shootouts, only to go down in flames in El Paso in one of the strangest games of a strange year. They were subsequently supplanted by TCU and Boise State on stylish Cinderella watch lists and dropped out of sight, save late-night paeans to the space-age numbers accumulated by the nation’s highest-scoring offense.
Previously on: UH bounced back from the thudding loss at UTEP by knocking off its only remaining “Big Six” opponent, Mississippi State, the following week, but couldn’t resist another mystifying road flop, 37-32 at Central Florida (yes, Central Florida). That preceded a stunning, turnover-marred loss to defending champ East Carolina in the C-USA title game and a 47-20 faceplant against Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. (There’s a Princess Bride teaching moment here: Never get involved with an Armed Forces team in the Armed Forces Bowl.)
Still, even the disappointing double-whammy finish couldn’t overshadow what came before. The Cougars finished the regular season in the top 20 of both the Coaches’ and AP polls, won the C-USA West and were the only team in the conference to crack double digits in the win column. Kevin Sumlin’s warp-speed spread attack put up at leat 40 points in eight different games, went over 500 total yards in all but two and finished No. 1 nationally in total, passing and scoring offense – as well as total plays, at a little over 82 snaps per game.
Encounters in the wild: Both regular-season losses can be avenged in Friday night primetime affairs, with an early rematch against UTEP and a November tilt with UCF already slated for ESPN. In non-conference action, the Cougars travel to UCLA in September, host Mississippi State in October, and ship out for Texas Tech for the regular-season finale.
And get used to the darkhorse Heisman buzz from the official Case Keenum Coronation Tour, detonating box scores near you all season long. The Cougars’ senior war machine of a quarterback has almost 13,000 yards and 102 touchdowns on more than 1,500 career passes; last year, he led the nation in total offense for the second year in a row. The sheer force of his statsheet alone will keep Keenum in the award race, even if he was last seen
tying a bowl record with six interceptions against
Air Force.
Stock characters: Receivers coach Jason Phillips replaces departed offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, who decamped to Oklahoma State in the offseason, but he’s got a lot to work with and shouldn’t have to tweak anything, really – three different receivers (James Cleveland, Patrick Edwards and Tyron Carrier) went over 1,000 yards on at least 85 catches, all of whom return. In case of rain, there are two talented young running backs in the mix, Bryce Beall and Charles Sims, who combined for more than 100 catches themselves out of the backfield last season.
Sumlin brough in new defensive coordinator Brian Stewart from the Philadelphia Eagles to install a 3-4 scheme in hopes of fixing a beleaguered unit that finished 115th against the run and 111th in total D in ’09. Apart from linebacker Marcus McGraw, a tackle machine with more than 100 stops in each of his first two seasons, the defense is largely a blank slate, although having a defense of any sort will be a start.
Prognosis: Think big. Think very, very big. Oklahoma State’s off the schedule, replaced with Texas State. Texas Tech has a new coach; Mississippi State could be a trap game but gave Keenum no problems last year in Starkville, and UCLA may be recovering from Stanford and/or looking ahead to Texas when the Cougars come to town. This is a very favorable schedule for another run to national prominence, and with four returning starters on the O-line and all of his top targets in tow, we may very well see Case Keenum break 6,000 aerial yards without breaking a sweat.
- – - Holly welcomes your adulation and veiled threats at nastinchka-at-yahoo, etc.
Previous Absurdly Premature Assessments (alphabetically by team): Boston College … Central Michigan … Clemson … Colorado State … Connecticut … East Carolina … Florida Atlantic … Fresno State … Hawaii … Iowa … Kansas State … Kentucky … LSU … Marshall … Memphis … Middle Tennessee State … Missouri … Oregon State … Pittsburgh … San Diego State … Stanford … UTEP.