Saturday, October 12, 2013

2013 UH Cougar Watch-5-0!

The good news is that H-town has one unbeaten football team playing inside Loop 610, and nope it ain't the guys who get paid to play in Reliant Stadium.

The Cougars once again played some serious defense, forcing 4 turnovers to add to their NCAA leading +14 turnover ratio and limited the Memphis offense to five field goals.

UH needed the defensive bailout, because the Air Raid offense took awhile to get going with Memphis' number 15 FBS ranked defense holding the usually high octane Cougar offense to a season low 247 total yards. 

UH got the scoring party started at BBVA Compass Stadium early with a 17 yard O'Korn to Daniel Spencer touchdown strike on their opening drive after Memphis turned the ball over.

But after that initial UH touchdown drive, the Coogs couldn't muster any sustained offense.  The Tigers narrowed the gap to 7-6 before a Leone second quarter field goal pushed the lead to 10-6 and Memphis got another one from Jake Elliott to narrow it to 10-9 at the half. 

The Cougar offensive struggles continued into the second half and Memphis eventually took a 15-10 lead in the third quarter before a 33 yard goal line catch by Xavier Maxwell seat up the first of Kenneth Farrow's two scoring touchdowns. 

Welcome back, Kenneth! Boy have they missed you in red zone situations.  The subsequent successful two point conversion gave them a three point lead before UH put the game away in the fourth quarter for the 25-15 win. 

With the victory UH not only matched their disappointing win total for last season, but go to 5-0 to start a season for only the fourth time in school history.  They also joined Louisville and South Florida at 2-0 for the AAC lead.

“There’s nobody in our program satisfied winning five games,” UH coach Tony Levine said in a Houston Chronicle interview. “There is nobody in that locker room — players, coaches and staff — that is driving home saying one more win and we’re going to a bowl game. That’s not our focus.”

Especially since the Coogs are now in an AQ conference and the winner of the AAC title, at least for this season automatically qualifies for a BCS bowl. 

The undefeated Cougars get tested next week when those other Cougars from BYU come to Reliant Stadium followed by a AAC road trip to New Jersey to play Rutgers.


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