Offenses must always keep changing because D’s always figures out how to stop them.
Last year a top 5 one loss Louisville team came to TDECU and was shut down by UH. Afterward they were also slowed down and lost to Kentucky and LSU. This year they are not the scoring juggernaut that they were before the UH game.
Last year UH defeated OU and OSU embarrassed OU 45-24 and celebrated the win on the OU logo in front of the OU fans. This year OU added new plays and embarrassed OSU 31-16 and planted the OU flag on the OSU logo in front of all the OSU fans.
OSU won the first every football playoff championship with this offense. Last year their O was slowed down by Wisconsin and held to just 21 points in their loss to Penn State, 24 against Northwestern, 17 against Michigan St. and it took 3 overtimes to score 30 against Michigan. Then they ended the season losing to Clemson 31-0. Now the first quality opponent give up only 16 points to OSU.
This is FB and solid D’s can stop any O if they see it each season. During the OU - OSU game they talked about the lack of a break away deep threat on the OSU team. Sound familiar?
UH has no deep threat like the 2015 team. Last season UH had no deep threat at the end of the season at WR and Ward being injured. UH scored 10 points against San Diego St. and now has scored 19 points against Arizona. If UH has no spread the field, deep threat at RB and WR, the better D teams will cause UH problems.
UH will need to do what OU did, add many plays to the playbook. Use the TE more, incorporate some Air Raid passing routes like the screen pass that was used on one scoring drive, etc. . Rice may surprise UH this year since they always play their best against UH and their coach pulls out all stops. I expect a UH win but it may not be as impressive as many would like.