Cougars cage Wildcats’ offense in opener
Thanks to stout play on defense, Applewhite earns first career win
TUCSON, Ariz. — Major Applewhite showed little emotion as he walked off the field Saturday night after recording his first victory as a head coach.
Maybe that’s just who Applewhite is, or maybe it was the Cougars could finally exhale after holding off Arizona down the stretch. The game was not sealed until Garrett Davis’ interception deep in UH territory with 3:49 left.
“It wasn’t anything real deep,” Applewhite said of his reaction after beating Arizona 19-16. “Just happy.”
Not to mention relief, as the Cougars extended their streak of seven consecutive wins against teams from Power Five conferences but left with a list of things that need work entering a twogame home stretch against Rice and Texas Tech.
Suffering a slow start
UH’s offense failed to score in the second half, had only 129 yards and had four possessions end on punts and two on turnovers. The best drive of the night came in the second quarter: eight plays and 80 yards, capped by a 5-yard touchdown catch by Linell Bonner. The only other time the Cougars found the end zone came just before halftime and was aided by 81-yard kickoff return by John Leday.
UH took only a few shots down the field and relied mostly on low-risk short passes.
UH finished with 383 yards, nearly 200 yards less than Northern Arizona had against Arizona a week earlier.
“One thing we talked about offensively is ‘let’s not get really complicated,’” Applewhite said. “[Arizona] is a good football team. Even though they are a good football team we don’t have to have 9,000 bells and whistles on our game plan.”
Kyle Allen, a Texas A&M transfer, was named the starting quarterback just before kickoff. He completed 25 of 32 attempts for 225 yards and a touchdown. But he lost the ball on a read play at the goal line and threw a pair of interceptions.
Allen, who was playing his first game in 21 months, said the issues that led to the interceptions are correctable.
“I think there is a lot of room for improvement in decision-making,” Allen said. “Overall I thought I did pretty decent.”
The offensive line looked much improved, but the Cougars continue to be a work in progress in the backfield, with only Dillon Birden, 14 carries for 83 yards and one touchdown, and Duke Catalon, 18 carries for 78 yards, sharing the load. Applewhite said it remains a priority to find a No. 3 back from a group that includes Mulbah Car, Patrick Carr and true freshman Davion Mitchell.
Another concern is capitalizing once inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. On the second possession of the game, the Cougars had a fumble at the goal line and had to settle for a Caden Novikoff field goal.
“You can’t survive college football with field goals and missed opportunities,” Applewhite said. “It’s a killer. We have to find a way to get in the end zone.”
After having the season opener canceled due to flooding caused by Tropical Storm Harvey, the Cougars expected to need some time to work out the kinks. It showed with 10 penalties for 110 yards.
On defense, All-America defensive tackle Ed Oliver caused the Wildcats problems throughout the game and finished with 11 tackles, 1½ tackles for loss and a forced fumble.
Defense stands tall
Led by Oliver, the Cougars controlled the line of scrimmage and held the Wildcats to 152 rushing yards.
As a unit, the Cougars had trouble late when speedy backup quarterback Khalil Tate replaced injured starter Brandon Dawkins and the Wildcats seemed to regularly want to test UH’s raw cornerbacks. Arizona blew a couple of chances at big plays, including two on one drive when Shawn Poindexter couldn’t corral a pass in the back of the end zone.
With a nine-point lead dwindling in the second half, Applewhite asked his team: “What’s our response going to be?”
The Cougars answered by holding Arizona to a pair of field goals while recording a sack and the gameending interception.
“It was just a sigh of relief,” Oliver said.