Rice Wins 2013 C-USA Football Title!

Some of my local TransGriot readers are Rice University students, and despite the fact as a Cougar alum they are one of our big rivals and we UH fans enjoy (and vice versa) beating the crap out of them in whatever sport we play them in, (baseball is a different story because Rice dominates us) us), have to give them a major TransGriot shoutout  for winning the C-USA title game that was played in Houston yesterday. 

The Owls knocked off C-USA East Champ Marshall 41-24 at Rice Stadium to go 10-3 on the season, earn a invite to the Liberty Bowl against a soon to be named SEC opponent and win their first outright conference championship since they were members of the dearly departed (sniff sniff) Southwest Conference in 1957.

So there was probably some celebrating happening on their South Main campus.   Even this die hard UH Cougar fan has to show them some love after winning their first outright conference football title in 56 years and their first since they joined C-USA in 2005.

Congrats to Rice and good luck in the Liberty Bowl!
 

2012 Cougar Watch-Final C-USA Football Game A Victorious One

It's been a roller coaster season for my fave college football squad    They started with a shocking opening day loss to Texas State, stumbled to an 0-3 start, began climbing out of that hole with a Bayou Bucket retaining win against Rice only to go on another three game losing streak as the injuries mounted to key players such as running back Charles Sims and quarterback David Piland.

The Cougars also had the life and death drama of senior cornerback DJ Hayden nearly dying on the practice field.  He tore his inferior vena cava vein during a collision and had to be helicoptered to Memorial Hermann Hospital for immediate emergency surgery.   That vein carries blood from the lower body to the heart and tears like that are 95% fatal.  That type of injury is usually seen in auto accidents but rarely reported on a football field. 

The final game at Robertson Stadium versus the Tulane Green Wave was memorable for many reasons. It was Senior Day and every member of the team wore DJ Hayden's name on their jerseys in tribute to him as he arrived on a cart.   It was the last game at Robertson Stadium, which is being torn down so the new stadium can be built at its site.

It was also the last football game the Cougars would play as a C-USA member.  UH is moving to the Big East in 2013, so they wanted to win this game for all those reasons since as a result of the twin three game losing streaks they weren't bowl eligible.

This game was also a microcosm of their season.  The Cougars got off to a fast 14-0 start, lost freshman RB Kenneth Farrow to a season ending injury in the second quarter but had freshman RB Ryan Jackson step up to rush for 129 yards and two TD's with one of them being a 72 yarder in the third quarter that pushed the Cougar lead to 27-10.   Tulane fought to close within 10 points twice before the Cougars put the game away. 

Fifth year senior QB Crawford Jones threw for 368 yards and two more TD's as UH beat the Green Wave 40-17 to finish the season 5-7 and 4-4 in C-USA West Division play

They also closed out their run at Robertson Stadium with a 72-44-1 record and when they play their home games in their first Big East season next year it will be at a different to be determined stadium before they open up their new on campus digs in September 2014.. 


 

UH's Last Season In C-USA And Robertson Stadium

One year from now the University of Houston will join the Big East Conference in all sports, but until then we'll be spending the 2012 season as a member of Conference USA for the final time.

The University of Houston has been a charter member of C-USA since the league was founded in 1995 but with the changing college conference landscape and UH campus leadership under president and chancellor Renu Khator pushing UH to be a Tier One institution in academics and its athletic programs, (and the Big 12 being 'scurred' to invite UH to join the conference) the move is being made the join the Big East in 2013.

Something else this will be is the final football season for Robertson Stadium.  The stadium was built in 1941 as an HISD high school football venue named Jeppesen Stadium and has a lot of history attached to it.   It hosted the Yates-Wheatley Thanksgiving Day game when both schools were in the old PVIL, Houston Oilers games in the early 60's, some Texas Southern University and HISD gridiron clashes and served as the home of the Houston Dynamo when thy moved here from San Jose until their new downtown stadium opened in May. 

It was bought by the University of Houston in the late 70's and renamed Robertson Stadium to provide an on campus facility for UH football games and was expanded in the 1990's to its current 32,000 seat capacity.

Once the final UH football game is concluded in December, demolition of Robertson will begin in order to clear room for the brand new 40,000 seat football stadium expandable to 50,000 to be erected on that spot of the campus and completed by September 2014. 

One cool thing is that the METRORail Southeast light rail line is currently being constructed on the Scott Street side of the new stadium and will be completed in late 2013-early 2014 which will make it easier to get there on Cougar game days if you don't feel like driving.  

But while I'm happy my alma mater is finally getting to work on that long talked about new on campus stadium and also renovating the Hofheinz Pavilion basketball arena across the street in the process, the one thing I'm sad about is that Robertson Stadium and the history attached to is going to be lost to the wrecking ball

But I'm also looking forward to seeing what happens in this final season of C-USA competition and how we fare in the Big East in 2013.


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2011 White House Holiday Photo

Yep, it's that time again.   Since Christmas Day is only a week away, here's the First Family holiday photo for 2011.   Happy holidays to all my TransGriot readers!

Is it me or does Malia favor the POTUS and Sasha resemble the FLOTUS?   .

2011 UH Cougar Watch-At Number 6 in the BCS Standings

The BCS rankings came out Sunday night with the 12-0 University of Houston Cougars moving up two spots to the number six ranking in the BCS polls

They are ranked at number 7 in the AP and number 6 in the USA Today coaches polls and will play in the C-USA Championship game at Robertson Stadium Saturday morning.

They face another stiff challenge in the BCS 24th ranked Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. The C-USA East Division champs are back in the rankings after being upset by UAB.  They are number 24 iin the AP rankings and number 23 in the USA Today coaches poll and are the  the first ranked team the Cougars have faced this year.

The Golden Eagles also come into this title game at The Rob with a 10-2 (6-2 C-USA East) record.

They met in the December 1, 2006 C-USA championship game that was also played at Robertson Stadium that the Cougars won 34-20, but this time the stakes are even higher for the Coogs than just grabbing their first C-USA championship in five years.   Win this game and the Coogs are probably going to make a return trip to the Superdome to play in the Sugar Bowl     

The C-USA title game has also been moved from ESPN to ABC although it will still have the same 11 AM CST start time.

Eat 'em up!

2011 UH Cougar Watch-Coogs Are C-USA West Division Champs!

The Dream Season continues!   For the first time since 2009 the University of Houston Cougar footballers are the C-USA West Division Champs after their 48-16 victory yesterday over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.   

Like every UH Cougar fan and alum I was nervous before this critical showdown with Tulsa in a sold out H.A. Chapman Stadium started and knew the stakes were high for the BCS number 8 ranked Cougars. 

A C-USA West Division title, a berth in the C-USA Championship game, the undefeated season and a possible BCS bowl berth was on the line. 

We were facing a tough Tulsa team whose only losses were to Top 10 ranked opponents and was the top ranked defense in C-USA.    Now 8-4 (7-1 C-USA West) Tulsa was determined to make their season by getting to the C-USA title game and knocking us from the ranks of the unbeaten at the same time.

But it was the Cougar defense that stepped up big and gave the Cougar offense time to get into the game by stopping Tulsa on a fourth and one deep in the red zone and forcing a fumble on another drive in the red zone to protect a 13-10 lead they took into halftime.  

And then the Cougar offense had that second half explosion we were waiting for.  They scored five touchdowns in the second half but the most critical one was the 38 yard fourth down strike from Keenum to Patrick Edwards that pushed UH to a 27-16 lead late in the third quarter.  The Coogs pulled away with three fourth quarter TD's to close out this game and the first undefeated run in C-USA division play for any school since the 2005 realignment.  

"Fifteen weeks ago, we set out for one goal and that goal has not changed all year," said UH coach Kevin Sumlin. "I think a lot of people have tried to talk our team into all these other scenarios and stuff that's happening out there

"Our guys understand that and they've put themselves in a position to achieve that goal. Along the way, there's been a bunch of records broken and a bunch of milestones crossed, but the ultimate goal for us from day one was to win the conference championship."

Keenum threw for 457 yards and 5 touchdowns and in the process (ho hum) set another NCAA record with his 37th 300 plus yard game.  Patrick Edwards had 181 yards receiving and racked up four touchdowns  

The Cougars are now 12-0 (8-0 C-USA West) for the first time ever in school history and with Friday's victory earned the right to host this year's C-USA title game for the second time in school pigskin history   They face either Southern Mississippi or Marshall at what is sure to be a rollicking and sold out Robertson Stadium on December 3 for an opportunity to win their first C-USA championship since 2006. 

Coach K's press conference.



Eat 'em up!