2006 Houston Cougars Midseason Review

CUSA-fans.com has a new staff of team correspondents this fall to help bring you, the fan, more detailed Conference USA football coverage. Today, our Houston Correspondent Patrick Mahoney reviews the first half of the 2006 season for the Houston Cougars.

This was to be the breakout year; the year of the Heisman candidate, the year of the Maxwell Award watchlister, the year of the conference championship. The year of the 4-3 Cougars. Oops. So what happened to these Cougars who raced off to a 4-0 start and received votes in both major national polls? The last time we saw those Cougars they were dancing in the mud and rain beneath the palm trees at Robertson Stadium celebrating the victory over Oklahoma State and the Big XII Conference by proxy.

Since that night the Coogs have gone 0-3 starting with a heartbreaking, though not unexpected, one-point loss to the Miami Hurricanes in the Orange Bowl. That loss was easy to stomach, almost considered a moral victory. What stung was the next week's astounding spanking at the hands of the ULaLa Ragin' Cajuns which led to the Cougar football players being booed off the field and at least one $7 beer thrown at the defensive coordinator.

The Cougars started out by barely eeking out a 31-30 win over arch-rival Rice. The tenuous hold on great expectations intact, the Cougars went on to destroy Tulane 45-7 at home and the bandwagon rolled on. With increasing, and recently unparalleled, media and fan attention, the Cougars beat Grambling State in the third consecutive game in the Houston city limits before moving on to the big showdown with the Okie State Cowboys. The gamblers had the line at nearly even but Cougar fans seemed to hold their collective breath as the game kicked off with a gale looming. By the start of the fourth quarter the stadium was abuzz and the place downright exploded in jubilation as the skies opened up and the Coogs beat a Big XII opponent for the first time since the formation of that hated conference. All of a sudden the same thought seemed to cross the minds of the Scarlet and Albino nation, "could we?, might we?, is it possible?, can we beat Miami? IN Miami? The answer was "no," but the narrowest of losses still felt pretty good - two BCS conference opponents in a row and nearly as many wins. Alas, it seems the Coogs left their confidence in the swamps of south Florida.

The Cougars are now on a three-game losing streak, one game of which was against a decidedly inferior (or so we thought) opponent in ULaLa and one game to conference rival Southern Miss. So what happened? The offense is having another banner year with one-time Heisman candidate Kevin Kolb at the helm. The team has passed for 2,151 yards with only two picks on the entire season; almost all that production is at the hand of Kolb. The rushing game has performed very well, with an average per carry of 4.0 yards despite major negative yardage due to the 17 sacks the matadors on the O-line have given up. Many have suggested that the rushing game is underutilized with only 214 attempts compared to 243 passing attempts. With 16 passing and 12 rushing touchdowns the Coogs have outscored their opponents 220-160, yet they are barely over .500, so where is the problem?

The defense has performed poorly for the most part, seemingly unable to stop the third down conversions only 56% of the time. They have also failed to force the turnovers to keep the opposing O off the field, snagging only five interceptions and six fumbles. Perhaps the most telling statistic is the Time of Possession, which the Cougars have lost overall 29:20 to 30:40. With these numbers even the explosive, if mismanaged, Houston offense can not carry the team to the promised land known as an invite to the SEC or Big XII. It would seem it can't even carry the team to the Conference USA championship.

Only in time will we discover this team's legacy. Will this, after all, be the year the Cougars turn it all around and reemerge as a major player in Texas football or will they be just another team leaving a trail of broken hearts and rose colored glasses in their wake? With at least five games to go and only one loss in conference play there is still plenty of room to be optimistic, no matter how low the team looks now. The road to turning it around may start this Saturday on campus at Robertson Stadium against burgeoning rival UT-El Paso. Time is slipping away as fast as the donor dollars and fan interest, but hope springs eternal. At least for a few thousand gluttons for punishment, most of whom will roost under the palm trees in Robertson on Saturday with throwing-beers in hand, just begging for another glimmer of hope.