SB Nation Houston: All Posts by Dustin Rensink

Banged-up Cougars reeling on and off the field

2012-11-15T22:31:07Z

The 2012 Houston Cougar football season had not exactly been turning out memorably long before D.J. Hayden's freak injury. One unfortunate collision in practice later, and the season nearly went from poor in terms of wins and losses to catastrophic in terms of a lost life. Thanks to the UH emergency staff, and the Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute, an injury that was described as fatal in 95 percent of cases ended up not claiming the life of Hayden, both one of the most talented and popular members of this year's Cougars.

As we let our gaze slowly turn back to football, we realize that the injuries have truly piled up, not just Hayden's, but the more commonplace football-type injuries as well. Running back Charles Sims, the most important player on the offense, missed last week's game with an injury, the second game he has missed this year. Sims is questionable for this week's key match-up at Marshall. Starting senior offensive lineman Jacolby Ashworth will miss the final true roadtrip of his college career. Daniel Spencer, the team's leading receiver, will be out on Saturday as well. And for good measure, defensive lineman Tomme Mark is out, and quarterback David Piland was limited in practice this week.

In what has already been a season full of excuses for the Coogs, the one that may have been most understandable (seeing the team struggling to focus on football after the near-death of their teammate) was lost on the dwindling numbers of the Cougar faithful. Saturday's announced attendance was 25,827. The actual number of butts in seats at kickoff was surely much lower. By the time Ryan Jackson scampered into the end zone to prevent Houston's first home shutout since 1994, Robertson Stadium may have as well been hosting an intrasquad soccer scrimmage, for the number of fans present, and the level of interest they had.

There will be much riding on the last two games of the season. On Saturday, the Cougars travel to Huntington, West Virginia and attempt to keep their bowl hopes alive. Regardless of the outcome of that game, next week's contest against Tulane will be emotionally charged, as the Cougars will look to close out historic Robertson Stadium on a positive note.

Houston's chances in those games will be very much affected, from a personnel standpoint, by all of the injuries. Although Thomas Bates did a passable job filling in for Hayden against Tulsa, the Cougars will need all of the defensive backs they can find against the Thundering Herd's aerial attack on Saturday. As for Sims, the Cougars are 4-0 this year when he rushes for 100 yards or more, 0-4 when he rushes for fewer than 100 yards, and 0-2 (combined score: 78-13) when he does not play.

But more importantly, the team will have to get itself in the right frame of mind to play at least two more football games. That clearly wasn't the case Saturday. Although nobody was making excuses, guys like Piland, Zachary McMillian and Phillip Steward all described the team as still "emotional" over what happened. And I'm in no way suggesting that you can blame a bunch of 18-22 year old young men for that. But every member of the team is going to want to right the ship in time to make a bowl, close out the Rob in style, send the seniors out with a 13th game, and earn that all-important extra practice time. And it's going to take a stark turnaround in the energy of the team on Saturday to make that possible.

What happened to D.J. Hayden is simultaneously tragic and miraculous. And in the grand scheme of things, whether it happens in the midst of a 7-6 season or a 4-8 season is irrelevant. But wouldn't it be cool if it ended up sparking a turnaround?

Houston Cougar basketball 2012-13 preview: Defining expectations

2012-10-31T01:49:00Z

When the Cougar basketball program traded in the constant, monotonous mediocrity of Tom Penders for new head coach James Dickey, it probably wasn't expecting the sudden drop-off it got: from an average of 20 wins a season, and a winning conference record five out of six years, to two sub-.500 records, and an 11-21 mark in C-USA play. But the silver lining has been the recruiting. Dickey has somehow wooed four top-100 recruits to Hofheinz Pavilion, including Danuel House, the highest Cougar recruit in a couple of decades, at least.

But the promise of recruiting is meaningless if it never turns into winning actual basketball games. So needless to say, expectations are high entering Dickey's third season, with three of the four aforementioned highly-touted recruits on campus and ready to play (Chicken Knowles will have to sit out the year), and a Big East transfer thrown in the mix for good measure. But what, exactly, should we expect of this team? And what kind of win total would be required to achieve those expectations?

Find your expectation for the team listed below, and read what has to happen to make you happy.

I'll take any sort of post-season play.

Rationale: Remember when Coach Penders took us to two NITs and two CBIs in his first five years? Remember how we all complained about that? Unbelievable. After two years of losing basketball under Coach Dickey, I'll take anything. CBI, CIT, whatever. Given that we're losing four of our top six scorers to graduation or transfer, as long as we're still playing basketball after the conference tournament ends, I'm happy. It's not great, but it's a step in the right direction, and with a young team (Joseph Young and TaShawn Thomas are underclassmen, Danuel House is a freshman, Knowles becomes eligible next year) I'll accept a moral victory to get us some momentum heading into the Big East.

The path to get there: Have a .500 or better conference record, and put a little bit of distance between yourself and .500 overall. Even Rice (18-15 overall, 8-8 C-USA) managed to snag a CBI invite last year. (And won two games once they got there, no less!) With a non-conference schedule that was designed to inflate the overall won-loss record, even an 8-8 conference mark could conceivably get the Cougars into a lower-tier tournament.

Let's at least make the NIT.

Rationale: Come on, Houston used to be a top basketball program, have a little pride. The CIT, really? With 148 (and counting) teams now "earning" a post-season berth every year, your standards have to be raised a little. The NCAA takes 68 and the NIT takes 32, so making the NIT puts you in the top 100. That has a nice ring to it. And with all of the talent on campus, it should be expected.

The path to get there: Here's where Houston's lousy schedule comes into play. Not only did Houston do a pitiful job of scheduling in non-conference (no team higher than 119 in last year's RPI, only three teams in the top 200), but the conference offices didn't do them any favors, either. The Cougars don't face any of the top five RPI teams in C-USA more than once. But RPI-killers like SMU (#216) and Tulane (#251) do get home-and-homes with the Coogs. That's fine for racking up wins, but the NIT does actually start looking at things like RPI and Strength of Schedule, and that's where the Cougars suffer.

The 28 games on Houston's regular season schedule give the Coogs an average opponent's RPI of 172. (Granted, this is based on last year's RPI, and it's this year's that counts, but with a sample size that large, the overall number is unlikely to sustain a large shift one direction or the other.) Houston only faces two teams that finished last season in the top 50 (Southern Miss and Memphis) and only two more that finished in the top 100 (Marshall and UCF). Your record in those top games (or at very least, the existence of such games on your schedule) is one of the top factors looked at by selection committees.

So assuming that the Cougars don't win Conference USA in the regular season (which would carry with it an automatic NIT berth), what will they have to accomplish in terms of total wins to make the NIT? If we look at teams with similar SOS numbers*, we see Nevada (24-5, NIT #5 seed) and Middle Tennessee State (24-6, NIT #4 seed) easily cashing in on NIT bids. A little bit further down, we see Cleveland State at 21-10 earning an at-large bid to the NIT, but we also see see Kent State at 20-10 getting left out. So we know that a 5- or 6-loss record will probably be sufficient, but once you hit double digits, your NIT hopes are no longer secure.

Given that we're talking about a theoretical season in which Houston does not make the NCAA tournament (rendering any NIT talk moot), we have to assume a loss in the Conference USA tournament. So a 21-7 overall record heading into the conference tournament would probably suffice.

*We will define "similar SOS numbers" as an average opponents RPI of between 162 and 182, four or fewer top-50 games and eight or fewer top-100 games.

The Big Dance, or bust.

Rationale: It's going to take a lot to wash the bad taste of the last two seasons out of my mouth. Coach Dickey has a lot to atone for, and none of these second-rate tournaments, not even the NIT, will erase the last two seasons. Houston was once a power basketball program and can be again, and we won't get there until NCAA tournament berths become the expectation. If we don't hear our names called on Selection Sunday, it's another season down the drain, and Dickey's seat should feel very hot. If Kentucky can win a national title with a bunch of freshmen, our less-heralded, but still star-studded crop of underclassmen can at least get us to the tournament.

The path to get there: Of course, the easiest path is to simply win the Conference USA tournament, but failing that, there's always the possibility of the at-large berth. However, the NCAA has (in most instances) sent a pretty clear message about the importance of having a strong schedule, so even with the tournament field expanded to 68 teams, the Coogs' SOS could come back to bite them even if they're sitting on a gaudy win total at season's end.

That said, a poor strength of schedule is not necessarily prohibitive. The easiest way around this is simply to win the conference tournament, but it's not the only way. Let's take a look at how the selection committee treated some teams with similar SOS numbers and high win totals last year.

Case study #1: Murray State

The Racers were the epitome of a Cinderella story last year, coming from utter obscurity to amass a 27-1 regular season record. Their opponents' RPI was only 181 (right in the neighborhood of Houston's), and ultimately, Murray State won its conference tournament, so its inclusion in the tournament was never in doubt. The committee rewarded the Racers with a #6-seed in the NCAA tournament. So we'll consider that the upper threshold of possibility for Houston this year.

Case study #2: Harvard

The Crimson's opponents' RPI was nearly dead-even with Houston's at 175. They did have a few more upper-echelon games, facing eight top-100 opponents. Harvard racked up the wins all year long, taking a 25-4 record into Selection Sunday. Like Murray State, Harvard was guaranteed a spot because they won their conference, but it's interesting to note that the Crimson received a #12 seed in the tournament. For a point of reference, only two at-large teams (BYU and Iona) received lower seedings than Harvard, which indicates that had they not had their auto-bid, the Crimson would have found themselves juuuuust on the right side of the bubble. Hey, speaking of living on the bubble...

~~Case study #3: Iona~~

The Gaels were the ultimate bubble team. Actually, many prognosticators didn't even bother listing the Gaels on the bubble due to their lousy schedule (opponents' RPI of 172, only eight top-100 games) and ho-hum overall record (25-7, including two losses to teams of RPIs over 200). But the committee stunned college basketball fans around the country with Iona's inclusion. The most likely explanation is that the Gaels were rewarded for a respectable non-conference schedule, despite their membership in the MAAC dragging down their overall numbers.

And ultimately, that's why Iona probably isn't a good case study for the Cougars. If anything, the committee would be looking to punish Houston for a non-conference slate that will rank one of the worst in the country (average non-conference opponent's RPI: 267[!!!!!!!]), not reward them. So if you remember Iona's surprise NCAA tournament berth, and think that the Cougars might be able to sneak into the Big Dance with a 7-loss resume, think again. As previously mentioned, the 5- and 6-loss resumes of Nevada and MTSU are better barometers of how the committee would treat the Cougars, and neither sniffed the NCAA tournament.

Bottom line: A 25-4 campaign like Harvard's is probably the bottom baseline for a potential at-large NCAA tournament berth. Even then, the committee might be happy to smite the Cougars to make an example of them for when everybody else is putting together their non-conference schedule. Still, we'll stay relatively optimistic, and say that a 25-3 record heading into the conference tournament gets the Coogs back in the NCAA tournament.

So there you have it: 25-3 for the NCAA tournament, 21-7 for the NIT, and above .500 in conference play for some sort of postseason berth.

Based on that, Houston faithful, what are your expectations for this Cougar team?

Houston Vs UTEP Preview Q&A With Anthony Salom

2012-10-26T21:10:46Z

The Houston Cougars look to stay alive in Conference USA West on Saturday as they take on the UTEP Miners one last time as conference rivals. In preparation for the game, we spoke with Anthony Salom of our SB Nation sister site MinerRush.com to preview the game.

SB Nation Houston: UTEP quarterback Nick Lamaison has been battling injuries this year. How much better is the UTEP offense with him than it is with Carson Meger? Despite ranking near the bottom of the FBS in points scored, are there signs of life in the Miner offensive attack?

Anthony Salom: There's no question that this team is much better with Nick Lamaison in the lineup. He's the most experienced guy we have, and he gives us the best opportunity to win. I look at a game like this past Saturday's against Tulane, we put up 21 points with Nick under center, and only managed 3 with Carson Meger. And, the drive that Carson had, Nick actually started that off and took us into Tulane territory before getting injured. That's not a knock on Meger. He's a capable quarterback, but I don't think there's any question as to who the best quarterback is.

At times we have seen signs of life. As I just mentioned, we put up 24 points against Tulane before Nick went out, and those were all in the first half. We've seen plenty of scoring opportunities washed away by mistakes and turnovers down in the red zone, and we've also been turned over on downs a couple of times this season inside the red zone as well.

We saw the offense move the ball well against New Mexico State, and they put up 41 points. They also followed that up by putting up 26 at Wisconsin. Now, I think think they lost themselves for a bit after that tough non-conference run. Things fell apart heading into C-USA play, but I do think that if Lamaison is healthy, and he's given the time to throw, this offense can definitely move the ball and put up points. We've got to cut down on mistakes, and capitalize on opportunities when they arise.

SBN-H. Other than the quarterback(s), who is the offensive player that most needs to play well on Saturday to help UTEP's chances?

AS: I think the offensive players that need to have a good game this weekend are the guys on the offensive line. If UTEP is going to have a chance to win, we have to be able to sustain drives and put up points. To do that, they are going to have to open up holes for our running backs, and they're going to have to give Lamaison the time he needs to throw. Too many times this season our offense has put the defense in deep holes by the offense going 3 and out. That just can't happen against the Cougars, because they can put up points in a hurry.

SBN-H. On the other side of the ball, UTEP has only allowed 30 points in a game twice in eight games so far this year. What do the Miners do well on defense?

AS: The defense has done an amazing job this year, and that's even after losing perhaps our best safety in senior Richard Spencer. I don't think there's one area that the Miners perform best in. But, if I had to choose one, I'd say they do a great job tackling. In years past, we saw too many missed arm tackles that turned into big gains. That hasn't been much of an issue with this group. Overall, they're an extremely experienced unit that is loaded with upper classmen. They play well together and just know how to get after the football.

SBN-H: Given the emerging rivalry between UTEP and Houston in recent years, and given that Houston's long-standing wish to get out of Conference USA has finally come true, is there a stronger-than-usual desire among Miner fans/players/coaches to beat the Coogs one last time on the way out the door?

AS: I haven't really heard too much from the fan base about wanting to beat Houston more than usual. At this point, considering how poorly this season has gone, they just want to beat whoever it is that is on the schedule. I think the same thing goes for the players and coaches. Anything short of a bowl appearance this season would be a disappointment, and its no secret we'd need to win out for that to happen. So I'd say there's a stronger than usual desire to beat everyone that is left on the schedule.

SBN-H: What is your gut prediction for the outcome of Saturday's game?

My gut prediction for the game is that Houston will be looking to get back on track after what happened last week. And, while our offense has shown signs of life at times, we're a little dinged up, and I'm not sure we can keep pace if this turns into a track meet. I think our defense will be able to keep us in it for a while, but if the offense isn't doing their part, it could really get away from us. But, considering how close this game has been played over the last years, I'll go ahead and say it'll be another close one. I wish I could predict an upset, but Cougars by a touchdown.

SBN-H: After leading the Miners to back-to-back 8-4 seasons in 2004 and 2005, Mike Price has led the team to six straight losing seasons, with a seventh nearly a certainty, barring a miracle run down the stretch. What are the odds Mike Price is the head coach at UTEP in 2013?

AS: I'm not sure that there is any chance that Mike Price will return next year to be the head coach at UTEP. He may have had a shot at an extension had this season gone the way many had hoped it would, but considering it hasn't, most feel the Mike Price era will end after 2012

If you want to check out the questions I answered for Miner Rush, you can check that out here, and always be sure to check out www.MinerRush.com for lots of good UTEP and general Conference USA coverage.

Measuring Stick Game Finds Cougars Sorely Lacking

2012-10-19T18:03:34Z

We called it a measuring stick game when Houston traveled up the road to Dallas to take on SMU on Thursday evening. And the Mustangs used that stick to give the Cougars a whipping of epic proportions. Both SMU and Houston set records in a 72-42 Pony victory - SMU for points scored, UH for points allowed.

The Cougars now sit at 3-4 on the year, with a 2-1 mark in Conference USA play. They still control their destiny in C-USA's west division, but barring a miracle turnaround, they will not factor into the conference race. And make no mistake, it has little to nothing to do with all of the talented players that Houston graduated last year.

Let's reiterate that last sentence, because it's important. Every program has years where they lose a stacked class to graduation, and struggle the following year. And while there are certainly plenty of talented players that are sorely missed for the Cougars right now, that is not their issue.

Poor preparation is their issue. And that falls 100% on the coaching staff.

Both the defensive and offensive lines returned mostly intact from last year. And despite some nice showings against the three previous cupcakes on the schedule, both lines continue to get dominated by good teams. Both have regressed measurably since last year.

The secondary returned most of its key players from last year, as well. Yet it continues to blow coverages and give up huge plays. On Thursday (with no help from an impotent pass rush) it made Garrett Gilbert, statistically the worst quarterback in the country, look like Davey O'Brien.

Arm tackling, leading to missed tackles, leading to big plays for the opposition, was a huge issue on Thursday, and has been a staple of the Cougar defense this year. It's one of the big reasons that Houston is giving up 13 more points per game than they did last year.

Offensively, the inability to hold onto the football has been inexcusable. The Cougar receiving corps, while young, has shown plenty of ability to run routes, get open, and make plays once they have the ball in their hands. What they haven't shown is the ability to consistently catch the football. And even when Houston does catch a pass, their three fumbles on Thursday gives them more fumbles lost (10) than they had all of last season.

Special teams were the worst offenders on Thursday. Expected to be a strength under head coach Tony Levine (a former special teams coordinator) and Jamie Christian, who came in with a very strong resume, the Cougar special teams ran one return man after the other out there, hoping to find somebody who could a) catch the ball, and b) not fumble it after he caught it. The one or two times that it actually happened, the rest of the team couldn't complete c) don't commit a holding penalty to back your team way up next to its own goal line.

Of course, the members of the special teams are hardly the only Cougars showing their lack of preparation and discipline in the penalty department. The Cougars are giving up 13 more penalty yards per game than last year. That's not always the most upsetting statistic, as long as you're committing penalties of being too aggressive within the framework of the game. But the myriad false starts and personal fouls that the Cougars have been stuck with all year long are indicative of a team that's just not being prepared well enough to play football.

The Cougar faithful (in their ever-dwindling numbers) had hoped that the 0-3 start would be a wake-up call for the team before conference play came around. But the alarm clock is ringing, and the Cougars have still yet to answer the bell.

SMU Provides Measuring Stick Game For Houston

2012-10-18T15:46:38Z

Since a catastrophic opening of the season that saw the Houston Cougars struggle to an 0-3 record, Tony Levine's squad has quietly climbed back to respectability. As they head up to SMU on Thursday, the Coogs sport a 3-3 record, including an all-important 2-0 mark in Conference USA play.

But after getting back to .500 against three relatively weak squads, the difficulty knob gets turned up a little in Dallas. The Mustangs were expected to be part of a three-way race for the C-USA west title this year along with UH and Tulsa, but things haven't worked out that way for June Jones' team. They lost their first two games against FCS opponents by a combined score of 107-27. Things started looking up after a respectable showing against rival TCU, and a road shutout victory over UTEP, but then came a stunning 27-26 loss to perennial cellar-dweller Tulane.

The SMU defense has come and gone, but the startling aspect of how the Mustangs have played is the absence of any sort of real offensive threat. Highly-touted quarterback transfer Garrett Gilbert has thrown for 11 interceptions, tied for the highest mark in the country. His 4.99 yards per pass attempt ranks dead last among FBS passers. (Ironically, second-to-last in that category is Sean Schroeder of Jones' former school, Hawaii.) Bruising running back Zach Line, who averaged 6.0 yards per carry and ran for 27 touchdowns as a sophomore and junior, has been held to just 4.7 yard per rush, and has found the end zone only three times in six games, largely thanks to an offensive line that suffered massive losses to graduation.

And let's not forget that Houston has won six straight contests against SMU, including all four in Jones' tenure as head coach. Interestingly, the only time that the Mustangs have managed to stay within three scores of the Coogs during that streak was during their 1-11 campaign in Jones' first season.

So wait, SMU is struggling and Houston has their number...is this really still a measuring stick game for Houston? Doesn't this look more like a creampuff of a game, ala Rice, UNT and UAB?

Not necessarily. As we've previously mentioned, Houston tends to struggle in games that it seems like it "should" win. And despite the Mustangs' struggles, there is talent on the SMU squad. If the Coogs don't dominate in the trenches (something they've done the last couple of games, but something that has rarely been the case in recent years), then the Ponies could see a resurgence in their offense. Zach Line is still Zach Line, and Gilbert will hit an open receiver now and then if he's not under pressure.

David Piland will need to have a good game, the Cougar receivers will need to continue their new-found ability to not drop passes, and a fourth-straight 100-yard rushing game from Charles Sims would certainly help. But the game will ultimately come down to that one match-up: Houston's front seven against SMU's offensive line. If Gilbert and Line are running for their lives all day, this is a blowout. If they have enough room to get comfortable, this game is going to be a lot closer than the Cougar faithful would like.

That's what makes this game - against a team that's talented, but that the Cougars should beat - such an interesting measuring stick of how far UH has come since the season-opening...well, you know.

Sunday Morning Cougar Hangover: UH On The Right Track After Bucket Win

2012-09-30T15:29:46Z

It wasn't perfect, but it was progress. More importantly, it was finally a mark in the win column.

The Houston Cougars took care of their crosstown rivals the Rice Owls on Saturday with a 35-14 victory. It was head coach Tony Levine's first career regular-season victory, and despite the struggles to open the season, it puts the Coogs atop Conference USA's west division with a 1-0 conference record.

Many of the issues that have plagued UH this year were still present in the victory, but they were in much smaller amounts. The receiving corps dropped a couple of passes early, but collectively righted their ship as the game went on and had their best performance of the year. The penalty bug reared its ugly head early as Houston was called for five false start penalties, but that too improved later in the game. David Piland did throw 17 incomplete passes and an interception, but he finally broke his habit of playing well when the Cougars are hopelessly behind, and playing poorly when Houston has a chance to win. Piland played well enough for Houston to win, something we haven't been able to say in quite a while.

Speaking of things that haven't been true in a while, the most notable outcome from Saturday's game was the Cougar defense playing up to its billing. All off-season, it was the defense that looked like it could be the unit to lead the team, but that hadn't been the case through three games. On Saturday, the UH defense was one short field following an interception and one busted coverage from pitching a shutout. The Cougars got a consistent pass rush on Owl quarterback Driphus Jackson all game long, making it nearly impossible for him to get in any sort of rhythm. The Rice running attack that gouged Houston in a losing effort a year ago was stymied, averaging less than four yards a carry. If you include the sacks in the rushing stats, the Owls gained just two yards per rush.

Saturday's game was also the first time all year that Charles Sims has really gotten into the game. After being underused against Texas State, held in check against Louisiana Tech, and held out of the UCLA game, Sims exploded for 205 total yards and three scores on 28 touches.

It is worth mentioning that the game might have had a very different feel if Rice would have had quarterback Taylor McHargue available. The junior seemed to really come into his own last week against Marshall, accounting for 467 total yards and four touchdowns. But ultimately, whoever was playing quarterback for the Owls would have been playing from the seat of his pants much of the game, making it unlikely that McHargue's injury was the difference between victory and defeat.

For Houston, there's still work to do, to be sure. Three turnovers is still too many, eight penalties is still too many (the head-scratching third quarter pass interference call against D.J. Hayden notwithstanding) and the passing game still has plenty of room for improvement. But if the Cougars play as well as they did on Saturday for the next two weeks, they'll be 3-3 overall and 2-0 in conference play heading into a Thursday night showdown with SMU.

For the first time all year, that's something to be excited about.

A&M, TCU Highlight Lousy Schedule For Cougar Basketball

2012-09-14T23:19:18Z

If you were excited (like we were) for the announcement that Houston would play Texas A&M in men's basketball on December 1 of this year, that's great. If you were hoping that the game against the Aggies represented a paradigm shift in how the Cougars schedule in non-conference, I've got some bad news for you.

The Coogs announced their full schedule on Friday, and it was cupcakes galore.

The Cougar slate inexplicably includes not one but two exhibition games. Houston faces Concordia in an exhibition on November 6th to open the season, which makes enough sense. But the Coogs then face Louisiana College 13 days later. The athletics department would like you to believe that the Louisiana College game isn't an exhibition, calling the Concordia game the "lone exhibition", but it's a lie. Games against non-Division 1 teams (like the D-3 Wildcats) are not recognized by the NCAA. (It's not like playing an FCS program in football, which counts as long as you only do it once a year. Playing a D-3 school never counts for anything.) That makes the game, by every definition of the word, an exhibition.

As far as the 12 non-conference games that actually count, eight of them are at home, with four on the road. TCU's 2012 RPI of 119 sadly makes them the "best" team on the schedule, followed by A&M (166) and Louisiana-Lafayette (195). Now, the NCAA ranked 344 teams last year in the RPI. Out of 12 non-conference games (and the 13 that Houston could have scheduled), only two of them will be against statistically above-average teams. Eight games will be against teams that finished in the bottom 100.

Really, there's no excuse to be scheduling like this. Mack Rhoades and James Dickey are entering their fourth and third years at Houston, respectively, so it's not as though they're still waiting out a bunch of bad scheduling contracts. This is a schedule of their doing, and it's one that woefully falls short of the goal of preparing the team to be NCAA tournament at-large berth-caliber. Playing these teams won't prepare Houston as a squad, and even if the Cougars are fortunate enough to beat most or all of them, it won't give them a resume that will impress the committee on Selection Sunday.

Recruiting well and coaching up your talent is difficult because it's a zero-sum game. Somebody wins, somebody loses. But scheduling well is a choice, and it's a choice that the Cougars have failed to make, yet again. And come basketball season, they'll have the nerve to turn around and wonder why there aren't any fans at the games.

Cougars Face Stiff Test In UCLA

2012-09-14T15:41:01Z

The Houston Cougar football team has played better as the underdog in recent years. That being the case, they should play great on Saturday against UCLA; the list of factors stacked against them in the game is lengthy.

The last time that the Cougars traveled to the Rose Bowl, they were beaten up, both on the scoreboard and on the field. They face a powerful UCLA running attack that goes right up against Houston's biggest weakness. Their defensive coaching and execution have looked fatally flawed through two games. And the offense, even in racking up big yards and points against Louisiana Tech, was very one-dimensional, something that will have to be remedied to beat good teams like UCLA.

Let's take a look at the challenges facing the Cougars on each side of the ball.

Houston offense vs UCLA defense

The Cougar offense had a remarkable one-game turnaround between the Texas State and Louisiana Tech games, so at least it can be said that the Travis Bush era as offensive coordinator is off to a good start. Quarterback David Piland threw for 580 yards en route to setting an NCAA record for pass attempts in a game without an interception. The up-tempo offense that had been promised finally shone through, as the Coogs tied an NCAA record for offensive plays in a game.

The UCLA defense has held each of its first two opponents under 200 yards passing, but neither Rice nor Nebraska devotes itself to the pass as much as Houston, so Saturday's game will be a different test for the Bruin defense. Piland will have to look like the smooth operator he was in week two, not the scared underclassman he was in week one. But equally important is that Houston manages to accomplish something against UCLA that it didn't against Louisiana Tech - get the running game going. UCLA has a talented enough defense that if Houston stays completely one-dimensional on offense, they will be slowed down.

UCLA offense vs Houston defense

The Bruin offensive attack is led by freshman dual-threat QB Brett Hundley and senior running back Jonathan Franklin. Between Franklin's impressive 431 yards on over 10 yards per attempt through two games, and Hundley's 121 yards on the ground, UCLA is second in the country in rushing yards so far. Even more impressive, Hundley has been very successful throwing the ball in his first two collegiate games, completing 42-of-61 for 507 yards with six touchdowns and only one pick.

And yes, that fearsome offensive machine is going up against a defense that got beat on the same play four times in a row last game. Frankly, unless the Cougar D has the same type of one-game turnaround that the offense accomplished, things could get very ugly.

First and foremost, the Cougars need to have finally grasped the fundamentals of stopping the read option. It's been killing Houston for years, it killed Houston the first two games, and unless things have finally clicked, it'll kill them again on Saturday. Second, the Cougars need to have learned how to tackle fundamentally. The arm tackling that Louisiana Tech laughed while running through will absolutely continue to be the death of Houston until it's corrected. Finally, the Coogs need to make some big plays on the defensive side of the ball. They've forced just one turnover through the first two games, and that's just not going to cut it.

To try and facilitate some of these improvements, the Cougars have made some personnel changes this week, moving Colton Valencia and Trevon Stewart into starting roles in the secondary, and giving Joey Mbu the starting nod on the defenive line.

Bottom line

A lot needs to go right for Houston on Saturday for this game to stay close. Unless the defensive line shows up, the defensive coordinator learns how to make effective in-game adjustments, and the arm-tackling is solved, Hundley, Franklin and company are going to run the ball all over the Cougars. Hopefully head coach Tony Levine is as good at pumping up the Cougars to play the underdog role as was his predecessor.