2011 UH Cougar Watch- Ouch!

Now that I've gotten past my finite disappointment over the Coogs losing the C-USA Championship game and a BCS Sugar Bowl berth in that 49-28 upset Southern Miss sprung on them, time to reflect on what happened yesterday.

It's simple.  They picked a bad time to have a lousy day on offense and defense with a Southern Miss team that felt disrespected and more than ready.to play in front of a national television audience.

I hadn't felt that badly about a UH loss since a certain NCAA basketball title game in 1983.   Add to that pain burnt orange hateraid drinkers gloating about it and other BCS conference schools sniffing around our coach is only ratcheting up the anxiety level that UH fans are feeling right now..

There was some potential Black history that died with that upset loss.   Had the Coogs won the game Kevin Sumlin would have become the first African-American FBS head coach to lead a non-AQ school BCS buster squad.

Thanks to the job Sumlin has done in building on what Art Briles had done to resurrect the UH program, Texas A&M in the wake of them firing Mike Sherman wants to have a chat with him to see if he'll come up to College Station to coach the Aggies as they get ready to move to the SEC in 2012.

UH AD Mack Rhoades says they will do everything possible to keep him, and Coach K says that he's happy at UH.

"At this point in my career, I'm very happy at the University of Houston," Sumlin said. "I think there's a lot of things that can happen with us. I think the conference realignment issue is critical and the stadium issue is critical for us to move forward. And there are some limitations if those things don't happen."

But the facts are that the Cougars still had an amazing year and they are still going to a bowl game, it's just not the BCS one they wanted.  My 12-1 squad will head up I-45 to play Penn State in the Ticket City Bowl on January 2 in Dallas.


But like every other Cougar fan, student, player and alum, I think deep down  we'd all rather be going to New Orleans again.   But the Cotton Bowl will be the destination instead.

2011 UH Cougar Watch- Eat 'Em Up Coogs!

Whose House?   Coogs House!
Whose House?   Coogs House!

As y'all know already, I'm watching my fave collegiate football squad play for the C-USA title at 'The Rob' in a nationally televised game kicking off in mere moments.  

It is probably the most important game in the football history of UH with a C-USA title, Case Keenum's Heisman trophy chances, their 12-0 record and a BCS bowl on the line.   


And yeah, I'll be anxiously watching this championship clash with USM's Golden Eagles unfold along with Cougar Nation.

Eat 'em up Coogs!

And check out this remixed version of the UH fight song by Houston based rappers Slim Thug, Bun B and Paul Wall.

2011 UH Cougar Watch-It's For The C-USA Title And A BCS Bowl Berth

Haven't seen this much excitement around Cougar football since the 2009 season.

Students started camping out for tickets awaiting the 8 AM CST Monday morning opening of the ticket office in the Athletics/Alumni Center and the line went out to Cullen Boulevard to get those $5 student tickets.  

Players Marcus McGraw and Michael Hayes were handing  out doughnuts to the people waiting in line for those tickets.

What kind you ask?   Why Shipley's of course.   They ran Krispy Krack out of this market several years ago.

The collegiate post-season awards are starting to come the Cougars way thinks to this special season. Case Keenum was named the Sammy Baugh Award winner yesterday and became only the second two time winner of it.   We'd like Case to get another award in New York in a few short days but that's still up in the air right now. 

Patrick Edwards is up for the Burlsworth Trophy, which is an award given to the most outstanding college football player who started his career as a walk on    It's determined by fan voting and Patric is agonizingly close to taking the lead in the balloting.

Now the city is finally getting on board.    Starting tonight through December 4 Houston City Hall will be lit up in all red lights to honor our undefeated potential BCS busting squad.

“The city is rallying behind the University of Houston,” said Houston Mayor Annise Parker. “This has been a historic season for the Cougar football team and a milestone year for the university. Houstonians are proud of this Tier One institution, and we look forward to helping spread “Cougar Pride” in the community by shining a red spotlight on City Hall.”

“Join all of us at City Hall in saying ‘Go Coogs!’” said Houston City Council member and UH alumna Melissa Noriega. “Support the University of Houston in the Conference USA Championship game. City Hall is … whose house? Coogs’ house!”

Like Councilmember Noriega, all us Cougar fans across the city, on campus and alums around the nation are anxiously awaiting the 11 AM CST kickoff tomorrow of the biggest football game in school history   

It's not only for our first C-USA championship since 2006 but a BCS bowl berth as well.

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 Texans Watch-A Different Matt Is Starting Against The Jaguars

The Houston Texans had some good news and bad news as they entered their post bye week preparations to face the Jacksonville Jaguars in their return AFC South division battle in Everbank Stadium.

Thanks to another loss by the Tennessee Traitors, they now have a two game division lead.  At 7-3, they also are in the thick of the battle for the best record in the AFC and a playoff bye week if they make the NFL postseason as it is increasingly likely they will.  

And the best news of all is Texans get Andre Johnson back after a six week layoff for the hamstring injury he suffered in the win against the Steelers that got surgically repaired.    Safety Danieal Manning is also coming back from an injury and will also be a welcome addition to our NFL number one ranked defensive unit.  .

But the Texans lost Matt Schaub to season ending surgery on the Lisfranc joint he injured when Albert Haynesworth rolled onto his foot during the 37-9 victory over the Buccaneers in Tampa.

That leaves the other Matt as the quarterback for my NFL footballers and Leinart will get his first start as the Texans QB today.   Having the number one ranked defense in the league will help along with having the one-two running punch of Arian Foster and Ben Tate to hand the ball off to.

The Texans receivers will also have to get quickly adjusted to the different rotational spin on the ball that the left handed Leinart puts on his throws that is the opposite of a right handed quarterback.

Leinart will also have something to prove as well as the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner who didn't get much of an opportunity to show what he could do with the Arizona Cardinals.

A healthy Andre Johnson will also aid tremendously in fighting off a Jaguars team who whined about 'dirty' play when they safely got off their planes in Jacksonville after their Battle Red Day Halloween butt kicking at Reliant.

The Texans will also want to keep their four game winning streak going and their unbeaten record in AFC South play alive as they begin their drive to secure the franchise's first AFC South title and playoff berth.  

That game will kick off in Jacksonville in moments and I'm anxious to see if the Texans can keep up the momentum they had going before they entered the bye week.