In five seasons at the Cougars’ helm, Sampson has helped restore the roar. This year brought a return to the rarefied air of the top 10, the American Athletic Conference regular-season championship and the Cougars’ first NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance in 35 years since the salad days of Phi Slama Jama. The Cougars regularly sold out the new Fertitta Center and all of the above helped land Sampson the richest contract for a basketball coach in school history. But the bar has been raised now and Sampson will have to overcome losing four starters from last year’s breakthrough squad.
10. Dana Holgorsen, UH football coach
2018 ranking: Not ranked
After Tom Herman left for greener (and richer) pastures in Austin and the underwhelming two years of the Major Applewhite era, Holgorsen was brought in from West Virginia to get the Cougars’ football program back on track. Leaving a Power Five program for one in the Group of Five school is atypical, but Holgorsen is tight with UH board of regents chairman Tilman Fertitta from a previous stint as a Cougars assistant. UH’s vehicle into a Power Five conference likely is football, so the pressure will be on for Holgorsen to win big and keep seats filled at TDECU Stadium. He only surpassed eight wins twice at West Virginia and recall that UH president Renu Khator once said “winning at the University of Houston is defined as 10-2.” She was joking. We think.
Astros did make it to the ALCS against a team that some consider one of the best teams ever. They’d probably rank up there.
Of course, being that it’s a Houston media source, freaking Cal McNair got the top spot. Texans can literally screw everything up, and people still eat it up.
ohfive - agree with you. Also there are thousands of Texans season ticket holders who do not have a clue of what a NFL franchise should look like. Also as long as Coach Bozo Bill and Cal are in the mix, mediocrity at best for Texans. Make playoffs and get blown out in first round. Wish we could get 5 to 10 thousand of the Texans season ticket holder to switch to U of H football. They would realize how much more entertainment value per dollar cost.
Number 1 should be Yordan Alvarez. I have never seen anything like him. The closest thing I have ever seen to a rookie displaying this kind of raw dominance is when Earl broke in with Oilers.