2011 UH Cougar Watch- Great Day In Dallas

One of the irritating refrains spat out by UH Cougar haters the entire season when they want to denigrate the sporting accomplishments of the third largest university in the state is that 'UH doesn't play anybody'. 

It was a comment repeatedly regurgitated during this season on comment threads and one that got annoyingly louder as they opened up with 12 straight wins and came agonizingly close to becoming the first C-USA team to make it to a BCS bowl.

After the shocking loss to Southern Mississippi in the C-USA title game, we fans and the players heard the volume of that refrain turned up for the next month in the runup to the Ticket City Bowl in Dallas. 

Cougar players were also angered by the perceived disrespect in their (and UH fans eyes) of being dropped from number 6 in the nation all the way to number 19 in the rankings and being dissed by ESPN and national media college football analysts. 

They and coach Tony Levine who replaced Kevin Sumlin (who took the money and ran to College Station) were intent on proving that the Southern Miss game was a bad day of the office.  9-4 Penn State just happened to be in the way of a highly motivated UH Cougar team with a huge chip on its shoulder.  They were also playing this game in a stadium that has historical significance for the UH program in terms of the four Cotton Bowl the Cougar program contested there while they were members of the old Southwest Conference.

UH opened the game with an aerial assault that stunned the number 5 ranked Penn State defense and led to a 17-0 lead the Cougars never relinquished as the Cougars rolled to a 30-14 victory over the number 24 Nittany Lions. 

The underrated UH defense also stifled Penn State's vaunted running attack and picked off three passes to close out the dominating win.

Case Keenum was 45 for 69 for 532 yards and three TD's in his final game and finished his Cougar career with 20,114 yards passing while (ho hum) demolishing more NCAA records in his wake.

Keenum also became the first Cougar quarterback in the history of the program to have multiple bowl wins.

Coach Tony Levine also became the first UH head coach to open his career since Hal Lahar did so in 1957 by beating a ranked opponent in his inaugural game.

UH also became the first C-USA football squad to win 13 games and beat a ranked AQ conference team in a bowl game.

It's just too bad that didn't happen for the 13-1 Cougars in a BCS bowl.

This UH senior class of 17 players such as Keenum, Patrick Edwards, Tyron Carrier, Sammy Brown and Marcus McGraw just to name a few of them will leave Cullen Blvd with a lot of records and accomplishments in their wake.  While they didn't get the big prize of a C-USA title while they were there, they set the stage for something more important in terms of making UH football relevant again and getting us back into a major conference.

We Cougar fans and alums will always hold them in a special place in our hearts for what they accomplished, will love them for that and are looking forward to see what transpires in our last C-USA season in September as we prepare to move on to the Big East in July 2013. 

Eat 'em up!

2011 Texans Watch-Arrrgh!

The Texans rested their starters, played a vanilla defense the entire day and still almost pulled out a win against the Tennessee Traitors. 

But unfortunately another quarterback got injured when TJ Yates suffered a separated left shoulder.  

Jake Delhomme came off the bench and played well enough for 3.5 quarters to win the game but unfortunately the snap for the potential game winning two point conversion with :14 seconds left sailed over his head and the Texans finished the season with a 10-6 record after the 23-22 loss. 

It was a game the Traitors had to win to have a shot at making the NFL playoffs and returning to Reliant Stadium to play in the Wild Card round   The Texans were aleready locked into the third seed and hosting the game regardless of what happened.   The Kansas City Chiefs win over the Denver Broncos eliminated Tennessee a few hours later.

While unfortunately it was the third straight loss for my fave NFL ballers since they clinched the AFC South title against the Bengals, the only reason I was stressing out about it was because of my ongoing prognostication battle with Michael Watts.

The Texans will play in their first ever NFL playoff game on Saturday against the Cincinnati Bengals and Katy homeboy Andy Dalton.

Hopefully he'll get the same rude welcome back to Texas that Colt McCoy got.

2011 UH Cougar Watch- Fighting For Respect In Dallas

Being a University of Houston football player, student or alum is a constant battle for respect against the constant sneers of t-shirt wearing Longhorn and Aggie fans.  At times we feel we don't even get it from the hometown media who cover our team.

When UH was agonizingly close to becoming a BCS buster and reeling off 12 straight wins the detractors were sipping hateraid from 55 gallon drums as the Cougars rose to Number 6 in the polls and the BCS rankings before falling in a painful nationally televised 49-28 C-USA title game loss at home to Southern Mississippi.

The players aren't happy about what transpired in the last game they played and are looking for redemption respect and to change some minds about the UH football program.

“We want to show everybody that we can play with the best,” senior receiver Tyron Carrier said in a Chronicle interview. “The first thing people say is ‘Y’all don’t play anybody.’ Well now we’ve got somebody. We want to show everybody what we can do with this spread offense and the type of skilled players we have.”

They are in Dallas at the Ticket City Bowl with a chance for redemption against a number 20 ranked 9-3 Penn State squad that tied for the eighth toughest schedule in the country with Alabama, one of the teams they played, and is a member of the automatic AQ qualifying Big Ten..

It's also at the Cotton Bowl, a stadium with a mixed 2-2 record in Cougar football history.   In their previous wins in the stadium UH top five  football squads under Bill Yeoman knocked off number 5 ranked and unbeaten Maryland 30-21 in the 1977 Cotton Bowl to complete their successful run through their first SWC season and finish ranked number four in the nation.  In the 1980 Cotton Bowl the number 6 Cougars beat top five ranked Nebraska on a 6 yard Elston to Herring TD pass with 12 seconds to go for a 17-14 win and the number 5 ranking to conclude the season..

In 1979 number 9 ranked UH lost a heartbreaking 35-34 Cotton Bowl 'Ice Bowl' game to number 10 Notre Dame.  After building a 34-12 lead, a sick Joe Montana came off the bench to make the Cougars ill by leading a furious fourth quarter comeback over the last 7:32 of the quarter for the Fighting Irish victory.

In the 1985 Cotton Bowl an unranked UH fell 45-28 to number 8 ranked Doug Flutie led Boston College.

That was then, this is 2012.  Judging by what Tyron Carrier had to say, the Cougars are determined to erase the bad memories of that C-USA title game loss. 

“We said it amongst ourselves the whole season,” Carrier continued. “They were waiting for us to fall. As soon as we failed, we dropped from top 10 to (out of the top 15). We just want to show everybody that we can really play. It just so happened that we had an off game. We don’t plan on ending the season like that.” 

“I think it’s extremely important,” said coach Tony Levine. “We got to as high as No. 6 in the country and there were still people out there that were skeptics whether it was the schedule or the conference. I think having drawn an opponent like Penn State, the tradition is as good as any in the country. The season they’ve had, the success they’ve had, it’s a great stage for us to go out and show that the 12 wins were not the fluke but the one loss was the fluke. Our kids are looking forward to that.”

The game kicks off at 11 AM CST on Monday.   I'm hoping they have a better result in this game than the one back on December 1.

2011 Texans Watch-NFL Regular Season Finale Against Tennessee

My fave NFL franchise has had a week in which they are dealing with the fallout from the upset loss to the Colts and being snubbed for selections to the Pro Bowl despite a signature season for the Texans.  

Well, Arian Foster and Jonathan Joseph made it.  Nine other Texans are AFC alternates.  And no Duane Brown from an offensive line that has possibly two 1000 yard rushers?

JJ Watt? Connor Barwin?  Antonio Smith?  Brian Cushing?   

They have the Tennessee Titans Traitors coming to town seeking revenge for the 41-7 butt kicking they took in Nashville and desperate for a win to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.

The Texans are pissed about the Pro Bowl slight and perceived disrespect so this should be a good game at Reliant tomorrow afternoon. 

My fave NFL footballers have a chance to take out their frustration on one of the teams they hate in the AFC South, sweep the Traitors and knock them out of the playoff chase at the same time while making it up to the fanbase for the crap they have had to hear from the Harris County Arlington Cowchip fans.

We'll have both defensive coordinator Wade Phillips and wide receiver Andre Johnson back for this game and hopefully Texans coach Gary Kubiak will open up the offense and let TJ Yates throw the ball down the field in this game since the playoffs start next week.

We'll see what happens in a few hours.

2011 Texans Watch-Not So Merry Christmas In Indy

The Texans walked into Lucas Oil Stadium with a chance to exorcise another demon that has dogged my fave NFL franchise since their founding and help themselves in the race for one of the AFC playoff byes as well.  All they had to do was beat Indianapolis for the first time in nine tries on the road Thursday night to make that happen.

But unfortunately the Texans got into the holiday spirit and gave away this critical game to the Colts 19-16. 

Instead of making history in terms of sweeping the Colts for the first time in franchise history and keeping their opportunity for going unbeaten in the AFC South for the first time alive, they made NFL history in a negative way by becoming the first 10 win division championship team to lose to a one win team 

But the Texans put the coal in their own playoff Christmas stockings with a too conservative offense, fumbles, going 1 for 9 in third down conversions that stopped drives, not scoring touchdowns in the red zone when they did get there, and committed critical penalties at inopportune times, including the Colts game winning drive. 

They also wasted a 158 yard rushing night by Arian Foster on top of it.  The refs screwed up on a few calls as well, but the game never should have been close enough for the refs to take it away from them in the first place. 

The loss knocked them out of any chance to have a AFC playoff bye much less home field for the entire playoffs unless New England and Baltimore get eliminated.  They will still host at least one playoff game at Reliant Stadium, but they just made their already long odds for getting back to Indy for the Super Bowl in February that much harder.


The Texans finish Sunday with a game at Reliant Stadium against the Tennessee Titans Traitors, who will be coming to town with revenge on their minds after getting their butts kicked 41-7 by the Texans earlier in the season and are fighting for their playoff lives. 

You know what to do Texans. Handle your NFL  business.  I'm tired of hearing the flapping gums of the Harris County Arlington Cowchip fans and so are the rest of the Texan faithful.