Good teams beat down bad teams. That’s what we have done. Don’t put so much stock in who we play. Idk why Coogs fans keep stressing over how good the other team is. Just win games, get the UH brand back to a winning program, and start bringing in those recruits.
Smu went 10-3 in 2019 and only beat 1 team with a winning record, and that was temple. Smu has only beat 3 teams with a winning record the last 3 years and that’s counting tcu this year who can very well finish .500 or sub .500. Now they have the top recruiting class in the conference. No recruits are looking up a teams schedule and going game by game to see who they beat and how good that team was lol. All they care is that Win/Loss record. And the state of the program. We need to focus on winning as many games as possibly, I don’t care if we are playing Our Lady Of the Lake, beat them down. We win 10+ games, plus getting into the big 12, that will be a huge recruiting boost for our future class. We start brining in more NFL level talent, than we really start to focusing on winning championships.
We knew this would be a long rebuild, that’s what UH expected when they signed Dana. We are finally starting to see it come to life. I’m very excited about our future. And again don’t put so much effort worrying about who we play and how good they are. Just that we win! GoCoogs!
I understand that we haven’t beat great teams, I’m not naive. I just don’t see the need to bring it up 24/7. It’s just not that relevant to what we are trying to build here. We aren’t a contender for the CFP. So it doesn’t matter who we play, just win and get that winning perception back on UH program. The recruits will start coming in. We go 2 seasons with 10+ wins heading into the big 12. That’s how we build this program back up. Not scheduling a whole bunch of hard and rank teams like Wazzo, OU, BYU. Than having to play smu, cincy, Memphis, UCF. When we haven’t been ready to have a schedule like that. All that has done is hurt the program. AD and Dana are playing the long game, really following in smu foot steps which was a great recipe for success.
Reality is our schedule is light but we knew that going into the year. There was never going to be a lot of games against good teams so win or lose we were never going to have a lot of wins against “winning teams”. In 2016 that would’ve mattered because we were dreaming big but in 2021, with the way the last few years have gone, lets just rack up wins. Who cares how they come? Win, win, and win again!
Yep, you built a culture of winning first all coaches know this, like a good boxer handler know"s this by starting his protege out with not so stiff competition to build confidence. ECU are feeling their oats, and want to prove something just like we do.
I hate playing the dregs. Its why I want out of the AAC. But if they send them then beat them and move on down the road. Complaining about the competition is more a complaint about the other coaches than it is Dana.
“But we should have dominated them!!!”
Do you folks remember all the close contests with the dregs during Briles’ tenure? Memphis sucked. Ditto SMU. Rice ring a bell??? And constantly close games or coming from behind. Yet, looking back, we consider it a renaissance.
People forget Briles only beat one top 20 team - Tulsa. Jackie fumbled against Miami or it would have been a grand total of two. But we appreciated what Art did here.
I just don’t want people to lose faith is we lose to smu or don’t make the conference championship. Doesn’t mean we aren’t good or not headed in the right direction, everything is going according to plan so far this year. We have to be excited about our future
If we go 10-2 I will be pleased with the progress and breaking the Cougar tradition of losing at least one perplexing game a season. But I will mostly be pleased at the direction of the team and not that a 10-2 record with this schedule is in itself impressive or where we want to be. (Where I would want to be even if we weren’t headed to the Big 12, but especially since we are.)
How we play matters. The product on the field had been hard to watch. This year we’ve turned a corner. I just want my Coogs to show up and play hard every game. As long as we compete with SMU I’m okay, get run off the field and then i think criticism is warranted. Cincy is a different beast it will be hard to be decent against that D.
We will know more about our opponents after tonight. If ECU beats UCF or plays a close game then they are a tough game. If Tech beats TCU, then they are better than we thought (UT is on pace to put 80+ up against OU right now).
If we beat ECU and at least keep it close against SMU, then we are a good team. Lose to ECU and SMU, then we are an average team. Beat ECU and SMU, we have become a very good team.
And I think the entire premise of this post is wrong, but I appreciate what you’re trying to say.
Tulane had a chance to beat OU and got a bum call… That doesn’t make them a good team…
UH needs to be measured against UH. That’s how you determine if they’re a good team or not. Are they playing at a higher level, executing in all phases, and taking care of business. Yes across the board.
Next, can they keep it up? That’s what good teams do. That’s how you know…
At least that’s how I feel about it. I don’t look at others for validation.
Looking at the context of everything is important. Otherwise at 5-1 you would be able to say we are great. If ECU ends up as an 8 win team then that would be a good win and you couldn’t say everybody they beat sucks. Same with Tech if they pick up a few more Big 12 wins. If they are 7-5 or 8-4 then that was much better than what we thought they were coming into the season (4 wins projected). Right now we could be anywhere from average to very good. Teams that “suck” don’t win 5 straight including back to back games on the road on short weeks.
Parcells used to say, “you are what your record says you are.”
And a boss I had with Aramco used to tell me, “if you want to know if you made the right choices in life then hit ‘balance’ on your ATM menu.”
As long as our record looks good I’m happy. I don’t need blow-outs or 50-point games to soothe my savage beast.
Eek ‘em all out and I’m good. In fact those are the games that everyone looks back on and says, “my effort mattered.” Close games keep you edgy and give you things to work on.