There’s a renewed sense of excitement surround the Houston Cougars. And why not?
After a series of disappointing losses so far this season, and quickly falling behind 14-0 to Memphis last week, it seems someone flipped a switch for the Coogs on their way to a thrilling come-from-behind win—on the road no less.
Memphis was getting a lot of buzz after crushing Cincinnati. Now the next “it” team in the AAC (besides ECU) is coming to town: the Temple Owls. This didn’t seem to be a premier match-up at the beginning of the season, but suddenly there is a lot riding on this game for the Cougars.
Houston is just 3-3 on the season, but with the Memphis win and parity within the conference, the Cougars are back in the conversation for who will finish second behind ECU.
Temple comes in to TDECU Stadium Friday sporting a shiny 4-1 record, including a 2-0 start in AAC play. Looks can be deceiving, however. The Owls have no signature win. Their conference victories come against horrible UConn and Tulsa teams. They did beat Vanderbilt to start the season, which at the time was a big win. Now Vandy opponents find games against the Commodores’ easy like Sunday morning.
Temple also is one of the youngest teams in the country. It has one senior on offense and none on defense. But that isn’t stopping the Owls from scoring at will, averaging nearly 42 points a game in their four wins.
It’s also a battle of strength versus strength: Temple is No. 1 in the AAC in scoring defense, and Houston is No. 1 in overall defense.
But for the Cougars, this is more about a stats game. This game, at home, could be make-or-break time. Use any cliche you want, they’re all true. UH has yet to truly take advantage of the home field, losing to UTSA and UCF. They’ve made sweeping changes on offense, which seemed to click in the second half against Memphis. If Houston doesn’t want to let 2104 slip away, this is the game to put it all together.
Sounds good, right? Well the Coogs were dealt another big blow Monday when coach Tony Levine announced linebacker Derrick Mathews (one of the best in Houston history) and cornerback Lee Hightower will be out for the rest of the season with leg injuries. This will test the depth of the defense in a big way.
After the Memphis game, linebacker Efram Olifant said, “We just did what we normally do which is fight and get ourselves in position to make plays.” That becomes becomes much more difficult without Mathews by his side.
Olifant uses an interesting word there: fight. That’s something we haven’t seen a whole lot of from the Cougars this year; they got punched in the mouth in all three of the losses. But you saw something change in the second half at the Liberty Bowl. Now let’s see if that carries over to the Temple game.
If the Cougars come out with a win, it could very well turn around what has been a very average season.
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