Despite coach Tom Herman leaving for Texas, Houston is still equipped to win the league title. Texas A&M transfer Kyle Allen is eligible at quarterback, and tackle Ed Oliver is among the nation’s best defensive players. Assuming new coach Major Applewhite has a smooth transition into the full-time job, a schedule that features home games against Memphis and Navy could be the difference in a tight division.
7-5 is bearish. This team has won at least 8 games each of the last 4 seasons and averaged 9 1/2 over that span.
Looking at the schedule, we should be TD+ favorites in 5 games (@ UTSA, Rice, SMU, ECU and @ Tulane).
The remaining 7 games (@ Arizona, TTU, @ Temple, @ Tulsa, Memphis, @ USF and Navy) should all be under 1 TD lines, one way or the other.
To go 7-5 we’d either have to drop at least one game to a team that we have no business losing to, or only manage 2-5 against the “quality” teams on the schedule. Either would be a terrible disappointment.
Doesn’t matter what the “anti-Applewhite” fans say, it only matters how serious Tilman Fertitta was about Applewhite winning “9, 10, 11 games every year.” It’s hard to predict how this season will go even if we execute at the same level this season as we did last season because we beat two teams better than us and lost to several teams worse than us.
I’ll be OK with 7 wins the first season as long as we look good getting those 7 wins and the copious amounts of bubble screens and the 2nd and short quick snaps went to Austin with Herman.
We hitched ourselves to the Applewhite wagon for 3 years most likely. Hopefully, it turns out to have been the right decision. I think we will know fairly quickly. My guess if things go a little south, which at Houston is a 7-win season, we will see some coordinators go.
I go away for a bit and erbody is falling apart over an Athlon Sports prediction? That rag is the bottom of the barrel. Matty Ds way to early conference championship prediction- Coogs/South Florida. And, surprise… Coogs win. South Florida unable to gain 275 yds of ttl offense. Our defense this year will be devastating. Mark it.
Does a holdover O/C promoted to HC and some unknowns make it a rebuilding year? Sure some good talent graduated but it did after Herman’s first year. QB is a question mark but it was when Herman stepped in as well. Who steps up to take the place of the Wilsons on defense and special teams? There are some holes to fill but this is the first I have heard that 2017 is a rebuilding year. Transition year? Maybe. But anything short of 8-4 and in the hunt for the AAC West title will be very disappointing.
This feels like an 8-win or 9-win season heading in to the Summer right now. We could surprise, but it looks like we might have consistency problems during the year, i.e. really good one game/half, not good one game/half.
Ive found that most fans know more about their own team than they do about the other teams, so I’ll still take the opinion of an unbiased source over a poly anytime. Our D fell apart several times last year and 3 of the top 4 defensive players may be on NFL rosters in August. Our defensive line will be solid but there is no way to know how the linebackers and defensive backs will do under our new coaching staff.
Everyone is guessing at this point. Last season, Athlon had UH going 8-0 in the AAC and 11-2 overall. This probably aligned better with the sentiments on this board. Regardless, 2-2 in OOC and 5-3 in AAC are still the ingredients of a disappointing season for me.
Don’t let the fact that we quit against them last year make them out to be some kind of juggernaut. They’ve won 7 games in the last two years combined. Their QB had an OK year for a freshman, but he’s going to be average in the AAC at best. Their defensive rank was 103 of 128, giving up 453 yards per game.
They have the best WR in the country and a nice, shifty RB. That’s about it. Aside from when we quit, they only managed wins against North Texas, Liberty, Tulane and ECU last year. The year before they only beat North Texas and Tulane.