Plywood is a durable building material…ill take that…
If King stays healthy (he has a bit of an injury history, you’ll recall), then I say 9-3.
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Too late Coach, we left Pollyannaville months ago…All aboard!
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You can’t leave your destination.
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Are we talking football, or something else?
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I think we replicate the 2015 season with a conference championship . I think we beat both Oklahoma and Washington. Our usual WTH loss happens at Tulsa. Still, we throttle Notre Dame in the Cotton bowl in Arlington and finish the season 13-1.
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After last year I’d take a shower curtain!
If they put odds for every game before the season, we would be favored in 8 or 9 of them. 6-6 is not acceptable.
(If you think Cincy and Memphis will be for sure favorites, look at the 2017 Memphis game. They were top 25 and we just got blown out by Tulsa and still were favorites in Vegas. We were also big favorites over top 25 USF last season as both times we were the home team.)
I think something people need to remember is that the Herman classes (2015-16) and unfortunately its looking like the Applewhite classes (2017-18) cooked our short term future on the defense. You don’t bring in 10 Juco/D1 transfers (most of them recruited specifically by the Holgo staff) in on one side of the ball if you don’t think that you’re in desperate shape.
Even in a scenario where lots of the returning guys win starting jobs, you’re probably looking at 2/4 defensive linemen, both linebackers and 3/5 secondary being guys who weren’t with the program last year and/or are starting their first D1 game.
I’m not gonna tell anyone not to be optimistic, pessimism can be a drag. But Holgorsen wasn’t hired as a “1 year solution”.
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College Football News projects UH to win 8. Seems reasonable. If the defense can give up closer to 27 ppg (would have ranked in the 70s last year, a little below average) rather than 37 ppg, I see no reason why we shouldn’t win 8, more with luck.
I’m thinking Chambers, Turner or Fleming, and Godfrey will be the starting DL. One of the two behemoth JC NTs should win that position. LBs will be Carmouche and Edgeston. Safeties Anderson, Sprewell, and Owens. You probably will have two transfer CBs, but we knew all along that was a weakness. And then the one who may have started, Javian Smith, tore his ACL. It’s possible Kadarian Smith starts, but unless one of the other transfers gets eligible I would guess Colin Samuel from UCLA. So I’m thinking four or five rather than seven. But we’re not talking scrubs. Two of the projected secondary starters—Owens and Williams—were 1st team NJCAA All-Americans. A few others were juco Top 100 players. I expect them to be much better than the true freshmen we were playing on defense the final few games of last season.
I would actually take that…but Losing to Tulsa always aggravate me…same as Memphis, SMU or Tulane.
Neither of whom has played a meaningful snap (or in Edgeston’s case, any) of D1 football on defense. Carmouche has an interesting pedigree (he was one of SMU’s top recruits in '16) but his experience was limited to mop up action last year. I like them both and I am heartened that Holgo singled both guys out positively coming out of spring ball, but there will be “on the job training” at minimum the first half of 2019 for them.
I mean that right there is enough to get us in serious trouble against teams like OU, Wazzu and UNT early on. OU signed 3 blue chip receivers who were in for spring and returns probably the top WR in the 2020 draft class (CeeDee Lamb). That’d be enough to challenge a tough, experienced group… much less one of the most inexperienced in the country. Wazzu and UNT should be tough match-ups as well.
Owens and Williams were HUGE HUGE HUGE recruiting coups, 100% agree with you there. Once those guys get a full year of D1 ball under their belts, plus the 2 rising juniors (Anderson/Sprewell) improving in the new scheme AND the transfers we’ll for sure have eligible by 2020 (J Moore, Clemmons, Mwaniki, M Jones) this secondary will be fearsome.
But neither Owens or Williams have played a snap of D1 football. That doesn’t mean they won’t eventually be good, in fact I am betting they both will be positive contributors by the end of 2019. But to expect there’ll be no growing pains I think is unrealistic. This aint last year’s non-conference schedule, unfortunately for us.
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I know, I know: I am probably a stupid optimist; and that is really tough, coming right after that debacle in Fort Worth in the bowl game. But we had a ton of injuries late in the season last year, including our quarterback, who was being considered for the Heisman Trophy before he was hurt. And, Applewhite is NO LONGER OUR COACH!
Therefore, for those reasons alone, I predict that we will have a much better season this year - say maybe we lose about 3 games!
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I’m not saying the defense is going to throttle Oklahoma and everyone else we play. Sure, it may take a game or two for them to get it together, but I do think they’ll be better coached and more formidable. I expect we’ll have a unit ranked higher than #119 in scoring defense like last year. I don’t know how good Carmouche and Edgeston will be. Carmouche was offered by Texas, Arkansas, etc. out of high school, and Edgeston led the Mississippi jucos in tackles. I remember that neither Hines nor Robinson had played much when they took over, and both made first-team all-conference. We’ll have to see how CB turns out. Williams was 1st team All America and led the NJCAA in interceptions.
But I think it’s important to remember that we’re not competing in the SEC West, where the first-division teams have concerns about their second-team guards and defensive ends rather than starters. Everyone in the AAC has holes to fill. Memphis loses its star RB and most of its OL. We return 8 starters including an all-conference QB. I don’t think we’re going to beat OU or UCF, and we’ll probably lose another one or two somewhere along the way. But I don’t see why we can’t beat a 2nd or 3rd place PAC 12 team in Houston or any AAC team here. But we’ll see. I think we sometimes get too caught up in our preseason prognostications when no one really knows how the season will turn out.
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As the Polly PREZ…I SECOND THAT!!!
14-0!!!
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I have no idea on the wins and losses. What were the predictions before Herman’s first year? There are many variables. But my expectation is to be more entertained than last year which was highlighted by whipping Kevin Sumlins behind. Grateful to Applewhite for that.
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My prediction was 14-0. I know that for a fact because I predict it every year.
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14-0, drinking the cool aid.
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Yep I’d rather go into the season as the team EVERYONE remembered getting run over and slapped silly by Patton’s 3rd Army … a 4 TD dogs to an OU team who made it to CF playoffs … wanting to see if Hurts can become OU’s next Heisman winner on a Sunday night …
Both Memphis and UCF are picked to win their divisions EASILY and with UH having a new HC and staff … they are an unknown but not really given any thought or chance of challenging either Memphis or UCF.
If Holgerson and staff can turn this 'no one is taking seriously" crew around and no one in America knows we are coming to make waves … THEN we do have a better than even chance to make it a good year.
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