Is anyone else excited about the 2018 season atleast?

[3rdWardCoog]

I hate to sound like a downer, but I have sort of just given up on this season. We have a new coaching staff, lost key players, new starters debuting… the list goes on as to why the season is going the way it’s going. I’m already over it.

Now let’s fast forward to next year.

• QB Situation: Kyle Postma will graduate. Kyle Allen will most likely transfer. This leaves the team with 3 QB’s next year. D’eriq King, Bryson Smith and Chance Amie. The great thing about this is that they are all duel threat QB’s. All 3 QB’s can practice the same offensive scheme and plays. Hopefully we can actually start developing a real offensive identity due to this fact alone. My prediction is that D’eriq King will stay at WR. He is clearly our biggest playmaker on offense. I see Bryson Smith and Chance Amie competing for that starting spot.

• Coaching: Come on guys… It’s CMA’s first year as HC ever. Can we give the guy a break? Let the guy finish the season and really reflect on his mistakes along with the rest of the staff. We will have every reason to be fully prepared for next season. We will have the IPF, starters will have experience, and hopefully CMA will have deeper trust within his decision making and his players themselves by then.

• Defense: Guess what guys… We have Ed Oliver for one more year. We will also have a little bit more experience from our current first year starters. Our defense will know what to expect mentally and emotionally before each game. Oh yeah uh… let’s work on the tackling though okay?

• Looking forward: The next 2 seasons could be something special if we can execute. In fact, we may be able to repeat the 2015-2016 seasons (Let’s pretend we finished 12-1 last season). Next season is pretty much the same exact schedule as this season. OOC games against Rice, Tech and Arizona. Say we beat em all, and let’s say we finish the season atleast 11-2 winning the conference championship. We get a bowl game with a solid P5 team and win. We start the 2019 season against OU, and then a few games later against Washington State. I know i’m being overly optimistic but look… all I’m saying is that we shouldn’t just give up on this team after one bad season. There is a lot to look forward to the next few years.

GO COOGS

[aldineblue]

the key is all the new players, redshirt and true freshmen, available next year…Coaches need to allow best players to play no matter what their age or experience…If the new guys can make a real positive impact, we could have a far better team next year…

[red80]

Guys, I am optimistic about the rest of this year; I tend to be an optimistic guy. I haven’t given up on this year. sure, we’ve had a couple of bad losses, but we haven’t yet had a bad season. We have 4 games left and I will wait until after we play those games until I determine how good, bad, or average or season will have been.

Speaking about losses the key, to our losses this season, has been the losses we had the last 2 years to graduation or end of eligibility of some really good players on both offense and defense. Yeah, I’m excited about next season; but I’m also excited about the rest of this year. I look forward to each game. The only one I will miss attending is at USF. As for the games we lost, the Memphis game was an exciting and fun game. Yeah, we lost in the end; but the game was very entertaining. Fortunately, I can still enjoy a game even if we lose. I don’t just like football games we win; I like football games.

[92010Coogs]

No one and I mean no one should be given a starting spot next year because they are starting this year.
I have no idea if this is happening this year. I sure hope this is not the case. Even Ed Oliver will tell you that he needs to EARN HIS SPOT. Every single, every single dominating program has ALWAYS an open competition. That is the only way to stay on top. You miss a beat you are no longer the starter.
Chance Amie dominates in the Spring and Summer? He is the starter come day one. Lets the best player win.
The thing that troubled me from the start of this season was the Spring training. We did not do well. The published stats were bad. Unfortunately they were a bad omen. This can’t happen again. The Spring “numbers” will tell us a great deal where our Team will be.
What I care about is how we dominate USF this weekend. Remember we lost against SMU and Tulsa. We can do the same this weekend to USF. We have nothing to lose at this point.

[pray10]

• There will be growing pains with a new QB, but the offense should reflect their capabilities at least. Should be more exciting at the very least.

• We’ll have a strong stable of RBs next year with Catalan, Car, Carr, and Mitchell returning as well as the kid from Desoto coming in.

• We lose a ton of experience at WR, but gain a lot of speed. Dunbar, Bonner, Leday, and Jefferson all leave, but Stevenson should be healthy, Lark should be ready, Corbin will hopefully gain consistency, and some of the others can hopefully see the field. We also have a ton of speed coming in which should hopefully shape this program going forward. I hope we are willing to bring someone in to coach them up quickly.

• We lose the right side of our line which will need to be replaced. Need some of the guys that our last coach brought in to step up. We have to fins a way to run block better.

• We only lose Leslie from out TE corp. got some interesting young weapons here/incoming so hopefully we can use them more.

• Our Defensive Line may be one of the most talented in the country. Besides Oliver, we have the kid from TCU, Chambers, coming in. Bryan Jones should also make it in. Payton Turner has been a nice revelation as a freshman. Jerard Carter should be healthy and back. We also have some talent that hasn’t seen the field yet.

• At LB, we’ll have to reload as we lose 3 of our top 4 LBs (Adams, Hines, Robinson). A lot of young talent at the position, but someone will have to step up.

• We lose both Terrell and Khalil Williams in the secondary, but return everyone else including all our CBs. Hopefully, Stuard can come back healthy as it looked like they were grooming him for KWill’s spot. Wilder will probably take over the other safety spot.

• Only thing on special teams that needs replacing will be the return positions.

Schedule-wise, we’ll play SMU, Navy, Memphis, ECU, Rice, and Tech on the road while we get USF, Temple, Tulsa, Tulane, Arizona, and TSU(?) at home. It’s a doable schedule, but a lot will depend on our QB play and if we can find LBs that can get up to speed.

Assuming things go well enough, 9-3 would be a good record next year.

[CougarDave]

Defense: Guess what guys… We have Ed Oliver for one more year.

Is there a point where you shut Ed down for this season to make sure you don’t do serious damage to that knee for what is likely a middle of the road bowl game at best?

[3rdWardCoog]

I would keep him in for the rest of the season. Conference championship is still within reach if we win out and Memphis loses a game I think

I would sit him out for the bowl game though

[92010Coogs]

I don’t look into predictions. I 100% believe into how we progress from game to game. Come the 2018 season we are all 0-0. We have a chance to win every game. That goes for our opponents.
Regarding Ed Oliver there is a fantastic Memorial Hospital orthopedic department. They have been with us for many years. At this point of the season if there is a slight discomfort in his knee he needs to be shut down.
He needs to be 100% healthy. Think about the following:
ED dominates in the NFL. Can you find a better AD for the U of H football program?
He is 100% healthy? Let’s Ed be Ed.

[section230rocks]

With respect to the secondary, I really hope Major realizes that containment coverage is a recipe for defeat. I hope he insists on tighter coverages outside the red zone or I don’t think it will matter much who is in coverage. If we play loose, the better QBs with the better receivers will beat us, I fear.

[CougarDave]

Conference championship is still within reach if we win out and Memphis loses a game I think

I thought UH needed Memphis to lose two more (since Memphis owns the head-to-head) or have a 3-way tie with SMU, Memphis and UH with 2 losses each to even have a chance at the West title. Losing to Tulsa and Memphis the way they did is even more frustrating when you think about what it did to their chances to win the AAC. Those were two winnable games and UH could easily have been 4-0 in AAC with margin of error large enough to to lose to both Navy and USF yet maybe still win the West. Now it will take a freaking miracle.

[H-Town]

I would be fine if there were one identifiable thing that is wrong with the 2017 team. However, seeing that one week it is the offense, the next it is turnovers, the next it is defense, etc; tells me that there are major coaching problems. If it were the players, you would see the secondary is bad or the offensive line is bad consistently, but when it is a crap shoot to see which unit is going to suck any given Saturday, it doesn’t give me hope for 2018 unless there are major changes in coaching and philosophy.

[pray10]

Conference championship is still within reach if we win out and Memphis loses a game I think

I thought UH needed Memphis to lose two more (since Memphis owns the head-to-head) or have a 3-way tie with SMU, Memphis and UH with 2 losses each to even have a chance at the West title.

We won’t win a 3 way tie as the 2nd tiebreaker is division record. Memphis lost to UCF while we don’t have an East loss which means our division record will be worse.

Only realistic way we can win the division is to win out, Memphis to lose twice and SMU to lose once.

[CougarDave]

I was not sure what the 2nd tie-breaker was. I don’t see two more losses on Memphis’ schedule but this season has been as unpredictable as UH’s performance. I won’t get my hopes up especially since winning out will be a challenge.

Thanks for the info though. You are a true friend of the Cougar program. Dilly! Dilly!

[shaggylives]

You mention this over and over but we didn’t play the same defense against Memphis as we did against Tulsa. Tulsa destroyed us in the second half with the run and Memphis destroyed us in the second half with deep passes, not under the coverage like you keep suggesting.

[pray10]

No problem. There’s still a possibility as long as we can win out. SMU has a brutal schedule left (UCF, Navy and Memphis) so they will probably lose a couple. If they could take out Memphis and then, maybe, Tulsa could rise up and knock off the Tigers in Tulsa…Stranger things have happened before.

Hopefully, Houston can shock USF this weekend and we can all feel a little better about the program.

[section230rocks]

Tulsa isn’t going to beat anyone with their passing. Our coverage is soft and it hurts us. I’m not the only one who thinks so. We have the skill to cover tighter, so please explain to me why we don’t.

I can’t say if our defense was any different vs Memphis than at Tulsa. We definitely stopped the run better…but Dorceus was out.

[pesik]

I hate to sound like a downer, but I have sort of just given up on this season. We have a new coaching staff, lost key players, new starters debuting… the list goes on as to why the season is going the way it’s going. I’m already over it.

Now let’s fast forward to next year.

• QB Situation: Kyle Postma will graduate. Kyle Allen will most likely transfer. This leaves the team with 3 QB’s next year. D’eriq King, Bryson Smith and Chance Amie. The great thing about this is that they are all duel threat QB’s. All 3 QB’s can practice the same offensive scheme and plays. Hopefully we can actually start developing a real offensive identity due to this fact alone. My prediction is that D’eriq King will stay at WR. He is clearly our biggest playmaker on offense. I see Bryson Smith and Chance Amie competing for that starting spot.

• Coaching: Come on guys… It’s CMA’s first year as HC ever. Can we give the guy a break? Let the guy finish the season and really reflect on his mistakes along with the rest of the staff. We will have every reason to be fully prepared for next season. We will have the IPF, starters will have experience, and hopefully CMA will have deeper trust within his decision making and his players themselves by then.

• Defense: Guess what guys… We have Ed Oliver for one more year. We will also have a little bit more experience from our current first year starters. Our defense will know what to expect mentally and emotionally before each game. Oh yeah uh… let’s work on the tackling though okay?

• Looking forward: The next 2 seasons could be something special if we can execute. In fact, we may be able to repeat the 2015-2016 seasons (Let’s pretend we finished 12-1 last season). Next season is pretty much the same exact schedule as this season. OOC games against Rice, Tech and Arizona. Say we beat em all, and let’s say we finish the season atleast 11-2 winning the conference championship. We get a bowl game with a solid P5 team and win. We start the 2019 season against OU, and then a few games later against Washington State. I know i’m being overly optimistic but look… all I’m saying is that we shouldn’t just give up on this team after one bad season. There is a lot to look forward to the next few years.

GO COOGS

the biggest thing to be excited about is the addition of 2 of the best pass rushers in the nation…we have 2 elite 4star DL known for passing rushing “supposedly” joining us.and turner has been really good as a freshmen for us… next years dlne looks amazing

rb core “on paper” looks amazing

if allen transfers there is zero percent chance king stays at WR…applewhite under the hot seat isnt going to put his job in the hands of people who have never seen the field…if allen transfers king will be the qb, and i dont think it will be close…if allen stays or we get a grad transfer that’s where i see king staying at WR

if we can get some grad transfer CB/ or late touted guys.id be happy about cb…seriously when winchester graduates not a single CB left roster or currently being added was a consensus 3star, NOT 1…we have no touted talent
we need some late addition cb

WR, we lose dunbar, bonner and ellis…but lark has shown some signs, stevenson returns for his 3rd attempt at playing…lots of WR coming in, none have great 40 times so we’ll likely still be “slow” but they appear to be very dynamic (similar to ayers)… 1 legitimate deep threat speedster WR on the outside and id be happy here too

LB is an issue (its an issue this seasons ) but if both dline come, almost anyone playing LB for us will look good

if we get a speedster wr and a touted /or proven CB id be happy going into next year

[red80]

Can you find a better AD for the U of H football program?

It took me a while to figure you must mean ad as in advertisement, not AD as in Athletic Director. As good as EO is, I’m not reay to make him our AD.

[xsmithcoog116]

lots of WR coming in, none have great 40 times so we’ll likely still be “slow”

Post the link you are getting the 40 times from. I need to check something.

[3rdWardCoog]

D’eriq King may be 3 to 4 reps ahead of Chance and Bryson. If I’m not mistaken, every single pass King has thrown were reverse plays. Unless he starts a game sometime this season, he is pretty much on the same boat as Chance and Bryson as far as QB experience. Let’s not forget that CMA recently said King didn’t get any reps in during the Spring.

You say we need speed at WR, well D’eriq King has that speed which is why I think he remains at WR. If D’eriq King was to be a QB, he would have already been the starter by now.

I agree with one of the posts above. We can’t evaluate our starters based on experience alone. Whoever puts out in the spring/summer/season practices, they deserve the spot.