Posts Tagged ‘Houston’
This Must Be Rock Bottom, Houston Hopes
By Paul Myerberg // Sep 19, 2012
This is the bottom, I think – and Houston hopes. The most damning factoid that could be used to define a team is that it forced five turnovers yet lost the turnover battle, as the Cougars did on Saturday night. U.C.L.A. had five turnovers; Houston had six. What the heck is going on here? Through three weeks, there has be no more disappointing team in college football. No team has suffered a more inexplicable loss, with all due to respect to Pittsburgh, Arkansas and Wyoming, among others. Of the 27 teams that notched double-digit wins last fall, how many seem assured of not reaching that mark in 2012? I’ll say three: Arkansas State, Arkansas… and Houston.
Tags: Colorado, Conference USA, David Piland, Houston, Jason Phillips, Jon Embree, Kevin Sumlin, Kliff Kingsbury, Louisiana Tech, Mike Nesbitt, Tony Levine, Travis Bush, U.C.L.A.
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Conference USA Nosedives to Rock Bottom
By Paul Myerberg // Sep 13, 2012
Rewind eight months. Houston capped one of the finest seasons in program history by decimating Penn State, 30-14, during bowl play. Southern Mississippi won its program-record 12th game against Nevada in the Hawaii Bowl – and in their last time out, the Golden Eagles had harassed Case Keenum and the Cougars out of the B.C.S. conversation. Tulsa, S.M.U. and Marshall acquitted themselves well in the postseason, with the Mustangs beating Pittsburgh, Marshall beating Florida International and the Golden Hurricane leading B.Y.U. for 59 minutes before a late collapse. Was last season the finest in the history of Conference USA? It’s not hard to make that case.
Tags: Conference USA, Curtis Johnson, Dana Holgorsen, David Bailiff, Devon Walker, Ellis Johnson, Houston, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Memphis, Mike Nesbitt, Rice, S.M.U., Sonny Dykes, Southern Mississippi, Texas State, Tony Levine, Travis Bush, Tulane, Tulsa, U.A.B., UTEP
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A Few Talking Points for Confident Teams
By Paul Myerberg // Sep 7, 2012
Nick Saban is tired of everyone loving his team. No, not just tired – Saban is upset, and you won’t like Nick Saban when he’s upset, as beat reporters from Toledo to East Lansing to Baton Rouge to Miami to Tuscaloosa can attest. Said Saban on Wednesday, upon being asked how much time his backups might see in Saturday’s game against Western Kentucky, “when you people start writing stuff about people that we’re playing that doesn’t give them the proper respect, that’s not fair. It’s not fair to them, to their players who work hard. It’s not fair to our players, who need to respect them.” And then he got upset.
Tags: Akron, Alabama, Austin Williams, Bob Davie, Boston College, Charley Molnar, Chip Kelly, Houston, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nick Saban, S.M.U., Texas, Texas State, Texas Tech, Tony Levine, U.C.L.A., Washington State, Western Kentucky
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P.S.R. 1-124: Week 2 Re-Ranking
By Paul Myerberg // Sep 4, 2012
With the weekend in the books, here’s a look at how the country ranks — using the original rankings as the starting point, with the season’s results as rationale for any movement. The top 25 teams land a one-sentence breakdown. The rest? Not so much. Part of the perks of being one of the best. Think your team is too low? Feel another team deserves more credit, less credit? Let’s hear it below. It’s a delicate ranking process, particularly with only one week in the books, so you may see one team ranked below a team it just beat — see Texas State and Houston, for example. Don’t be alarmed. Everything will become clearer by the end of the month.
Tags: Alabama, Clemson, Florida International, Florida State, Georgia, Houston, Iowa State, L.S.U., Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas, Texas State, U.S.C., West Virginia
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No. 30: Houston
By Paul Myerberg // Aug 7, 2012
Houston had a simple modus operandi under Kevin Sumlin: push the ball, push it down field, push on first down, push it on third down. Never settle. Maintain this non-stop pressure in the passing game, going for broke even in short-yardage situations. Act, making the opposition react, and never vice versa. This is how Houston kept teams off balance; this is how the Cougars dominated offensively. Despite the coaching change and the loss of several key contributors, this mentality won’t change under Tony Levine, the former U.H. assistant who earned a nice and well-deserved promotion last December. The truth is that it’s not broken – why would Levine and Houston change a thing? The Cougars will continue going full-bore, keeping the same pedal-to-the-floor mentality that propelled this program to such great heights a season ago, as doing anything less would signal that something was wrong with the way U.H. approached the game over the last few seasons. If dominating Conference USA was wrong, here’s guessing that Levine and U.H. don’t want to be right.
Tags: Big East, Braxton Welford, Charles Sims, Conference USA, D.J. Hayden, Daniel Spencer, David Piland, Deontay Greenberry, Derrick Matthews, DeWayne Peace, Dominic Miller, Efrem Oliphant, Eric Braswell, Houston, Jacolby Ashworth, Jamie Bryant, Joey Mbu, Kelvin King, Kevin Forsch, Lloyd Allen, Matt Hogan, Mike Nesbitt, Phillip Steward, Ronnie Williams, Rowdy Harper, Tony Levine, Zach McMillan
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A.P.R. Scores Viewed at 2014-15 Level
By Paul Myerberg // Jun 21, 2012
The latest Academic Progress Rates, released yesterday by the N.C.A.A., uses the baseline of a four-year score of 900 for postseason eligibility. By that standard, all 120 F.B.S. programs – not yet 124 when this data was compiled – earn a passing grade.
But beginning with the 2014-15 academic year, the baseline to avoid penalties will increase to 930, putting a few F.B.S. programs in danger of suffering one or more of several potential penalties: a postseason ban, a loss of scholarships or a loss of practice time, for example.
According to the N.C.A.A., an A.P.R. score of 930 equates to a graduation rate of roughly 50 percent. While the current rate of 900 remains in place for the next two years, the increased standard has the potential to impact a handful of B.C.S. and non-B.C.S. conference programs.
Tags: Academic Progress Rates, Boise State, Buffalo, Houston, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisville, N.C.A.A. rulebook, New Mexico State, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, UTEP
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Looking in House, Not Outside the Program
By Paul Myerberg // Apr 3, 2012
In the wide number of cases, new coordinators are hired as part of a brand-new staff: see Calvin Magee at Arizona, for example, or Ohio State’s Tom Herman, or Mike Breske at Washington State. If an offensive or defensive coordinator is hired from elsewhere to join an incumbent coaching staff, however, it’s for one of two simple reasons: attrition or incompetence. Likewise for assistant coaches promoted up the ladder from within a staff, as occurred in 10 different instances during the latest coaching cycle. This includes Houston, which replaced Kevin Sumlin with Tony Levine, who in turn replaced former defensive coordinator Brian Stewart with Jamie Bryant.
Tags: Air Force, Bill Snyder, Bo Pelini, Brian Stewart, Carl Pelini, Charlton Warren, Chris Thurmond, Cincinnati, David Bailiff, Derek Mason, Houston, Idaho, Iowa, Jamie Bryant, Jason Gesser, John Jancek, John Papuchis, Kansas State, Kevin Sumlin, Kirk Ferentz, Lorenzo Ward, Nebraska, Phil Parker, Rice, South Carolina, Stanford, Tom Hayes, Tony Levine
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2011 Selection Saturday: Full Bracket
By Paul Myerberg // Mar 12, 2012
Cutting the bracket down to 32 teams – after going with a 68-team tournament last fall – leaves several talented teams in the cold. Among the B.C.S. conferences: Missouri, Texas, N.C. State and Auburn. Among the non-B.C.S. conferences: Ohio, Louisiana-Lafayette, Toledo and Wyoming. But trimming the list creates a very strong 32-team bracket, one with very few easy pairings outside the first round. Imagine the possibilities: Oregon hosting Virginia in the first round; a week later, if all goes according to plan, the Ducks meet T.C.U. in the round of 16. U.S.C. isn’t eligible, but if the Trojans weren’t under a postseason ban, they’d probably slot in as a three seed.
Tags: Alabama, Arkansas, Arkansas State, B.Y.U., Baylor, Boise State, Cincinnati, Clemson, College football playoff, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Houston, Kansas State, L.S.U., Louisiana Tech, Michigan, Michigan State, N.C.A.A. tournament, Nebraska, Northern Illinois, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Penn State, South Carolina, Southern Mississippi, Stanford, T.C.U., Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Wisconsin
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