UH Shocks The World Again To Beat No. 3 OU

'Nobody outside Beltway 8, including college football pundits  is giving the number #15 ranked Cougars a chance against a team that was a semifinalist in last year's College Football Playoff and is considered a favorite for the Big XII title.  But then again, none of the college football pundits thought the 13-1 Cougars could hang with Florida State in the Peach Bowl either.'
-TransGriot, September 3, 2016

Can I call it or what?

Once again, the University of Houston Cougars have shocked the college football world and beaten a top ranked football program nobody thought they were capable of beating.  They were a 13 point underdog going into this game, and this time it was number 3 ranked Oklahoma that experienced the H-Town Takeover in full effect at a sold out NRG Stadium.

UH earned their first win ever against the Sooners and their first win over a Top-3 ranked program since 1984 (they beat the hell out of the Texas Longhorns,snicker snicker) when they smashed the Big XII preseason favorites 33-23 with a national television audience looking on.

With UH days away from making their formal presentation to join the Big XII Conference, it couldn't come at a better time as far as UH alums are concerned.
The Sooners came out of the gate on fire, going 79 yards in just 8 plays, capped by a 32 yard Joe Mixon TD run on their opening possession. The Coogs answered with a 10 play 71 yard drive of their own that resulted in the first of Ty Cummings' four first half field goals from 35 yard out to cut the OU lead to 7-3.

The Cougar defense then began to show signs of slowing down the potent OU offense, holding them to a 25  yard Austin Seibert field goal to extend the OU lead to 10-3 after the first quarter,

The Cougars began to assert themselves in the second quarter, and after a 14 play 84 yard drive that chewed up 6:16, added another Cummings field goal from 26 yard out to cut the deficit to 10-6.  

The Coogs took their first lead after a 7 play 75 yard drive capped off by a Greg Ward, Jr 15 yard touchdown to a wide open Duke Catalon to go up 13-10.   But that lead evaporated after Baker Mayfield tossed a 64 bomb to Mark Andrews to put the Sooners back up 17-13.   

The undaunted Cougars went back to work chipping away at that Oklahoma lead, getting a 33 yard field goal from Cummings to narrow the deficit to 17-16, and aided by an amazing catch by Linell Bonner III, took the lead on Austin Cummings fourth field goal from 47 yards out with :03 left in the half to go up at the half 19-17.

The backbreaking play came in the third quarter after Oklahoma set up to kick a 53 yard field goal to take the lead, but it fell short and was returned for a kick six by Brandon Wilson to give the Coogs a 26-17 lead they would never relinquish. 



Mayfield tried to bring his team back but the UH defense continued their pattern of the last few years of forcing turnovers, and forced a huge fumble they converted into another touchdown to got up 33-17.
Oklahoma added a touchdown late after UH lost a fumble on the goal line enroute to another score that would have put them up 40-17, but instead they have to be satisfied with a huge 33-23 win.

It marked the first time in UH program history they have beaten Top 5 programs back to back, and the massive win puts them solidly in the discussion for a CFA playoff spot assuming they run the table the rest of the way.

But the most important stat in the game is that the UH Cougars are 1-0.

2016 UH Cougar Watch- Crucial Season Opener At NRG Stadium

My fave college football team starts what has the potential to be a blockbuster 2016 season when they kick off in a few hours against the number 3 ranked Oklahoma Sooners at a sold out NRG Stadium.

Nobody outside Beltway 8, including college football pundits  is giving the number #15 ranked Cougars a chance against a team that was a semifinalist in last year's College Football Playoff and is considered a favorite for the Big XII title.  But then again, none of the college football pundits thought the 13-1 Cougars could hang with Florida State in the Peach Bowl either,

But after an offseason in which they hauled in a recruiting class that ranked number 35 in the nation and included 5 star homeboy DT Ed Oliver, you may not want to sleep on this team.

We'll see if the H-Town Takeover can hang with a team they may have to face on a regular basis if the Big XII does the right thing and invites UH to join

But the start of this season for the Cougars seems to have a lot riding on it.  In addition to being considered for Big XII membership, the defending American Athletic Conference Champs will be trying to prove their 13-1 record last year wasn't a fluke along with the 38-24 Peach Bowl demolition of Florida State.

But as Coach Tom Herman said, that was last year's UH team. This 2016 UH team will have to forge their own legacy, and they can take a major step toward that in a few hours.

“We’re the same disrespected, little American Conference team with a giant chip on our shoulder,” Herman said. “The media and everyone else might have put us in the top 25, (and) that’s based off of what last year’s team did. We haven’t done anything.”

In addition to opening at NRG Stadium with Oklahoma and possessing the best ranking to start a football season since I was walking the campus, they'll also be facing on November 17 a Louisville squad at TDECU Stadium with revenge on their minds along with their opponents in The American who want to repeat on a weekly basis what UConn managed to do last year in upsetting the Coogs.

The Coogs are shooting for a repeat American title, a possible Heisman Trophy for QB Greg Ward, Jr,  and possibly crashing the College Football Playoff party if they can run the table schedule wise.

But the huge piece of that 2016 Cougar college football season puzzle starts at 11:00 AM CDT.

Will UH Be Heading To The Big 12?

Ever since the Southwest Conference broke up and TCU and UH were shadily left out of the merger of the SWC and Big 8 no thanks to former UT athletic director DeLoss Dodds, the end goal has been to get UH collegiate athletics back into a Power 5 conference where it belongs.

Dodds motivation for dissing UH during the formative stages of the Big 12 besides his burnt orange hatred for UH probably includes the fact he wanted to be able to have the lion's share of the Houston metro area's elite high school talent coming to Forty Acres instead of their local university on Cullen Blvd.

He knew firsthand that UH while in the SWC routinely and gleefully spanked the Longhorns and a University of Houston in the Big 12 would continue doing so.

But with the Big 12 having only ten teams (you need twelve to host a conference championship game) and with Texas A&M now being a member of the SEC, if the rumors and reports I'm hearing are correct looks like UH may finally get what it has been seeking since 1996 and become a member of the Big 12.

ESPN.com is reporting that UH, Memphis, Colorado State and UCF are lobbying the Big 12 in anticipation of the next round of league expansion.   If the Big 12 was wise it would expand to 14 teams, not just 12 as an insurance policy in case someone leaves for greener conference pastures.

Will we get to see the #HtownTakeover at a Big 12 stadium near you?  Maybe  Since they were unceremoniously kicked to the curb, things have changed.dramatically on campus.  It is a Tier One research institution like UT and Texas A&M, and is the third largest school in the state of Texas.

It is still sitting in the fourth largest city in the United States, is in the top area for Texas high school talent in all sports, is in a Top 10 TV market (number 7), and now has a METRO light rail line rolling past the west and south sides of the campus with a stop on the doorstep of the west gates of  the 40,000 seat (expandable to 60,000 seats) on campus TDECU Stadium.

UH is also a natural fit for the Big 12, and has rivalries with the four current Texas schools that would instantly be rekindled should they be extended an invitation to join the conference.

Also in UH's favor is many schools in the Big 12, with SEC member Texas A& M nearby, continue to express the sentiment that the league needs to decisively act to take back the Houston area as a Big 12 bastion before another Power 5 conference snaps us up.

In addition, the Big 12 North schools want Houston in the conference so they have a crack at recruiting the talent rich Houston area.  Their recruiting pipelines to the Houston area vanished after Texas A&M SECeded, and they need the ability to play a regular scheduled game in Houston so that they can have a shot at recruiting the Houston area's talented kids against the Texas Big 12 schools.

Even the current players in the Big 12, when they are surveyed, would like to see UH extended an invitation to join the conference.

And even more delicious for Cougar fans, UH membership in the league in addition to accomplishing a mission we've been on since being dissed and dismissed in 1996 means that the Texas based Big 12 schools could no longer run from playing us anymore.

While the Big XII continues to publicly downplay they are expanding, University of Oklahoma president David Boren,  Kansas State coach Bill Snyder and Baylor head coach Art Briles have been pushing for Big XII expansion.  It was confirmed that University of West Virginia president Gordon Gee, who sits on the Big XII expansion committee, paid UH a visit back in November.  

The November 30 UH campus visit wasn't for expansion purposes, but Gee quickly found himself in UH president Renu Khator's office for an hour, met UH head football coach Tom Herman, and was escorted by UH AD Hunter Yurachek, several members of the UH Board of Regents on a tour of the UH athletic facilities.  

So will we see the Cougars in the Big 12?  Sure hope so. UH will get a taste of Big 12 play when they open the season with Oklahoma at NRG stadium September 3, and we'll find out next month whether it happens for us.

If it does, I'd love to go to the Jerrydome and watch my boys play in a Big XII title game, or see a basketball game at a sold out renovated Hofheinz Pavilion against Kansas

And I'd love to see my Cougars once again routinely beating the hell out of Texas.