No Birden is a bigger burden for backfield
RB likely will miss three to six weeks with elbow injury
A University of Houston rushing attack that has shown improvement in recent weeks was dropped for a big loss Monday.
Dillon Birden, who has split time as the Cougars’ featured back, is out indefinitely with an elbow injury, coach Major Applewhite said at his weekly news conference.
Birden, a walk-on who was voted a team captain before this season, suffered the injury late in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s 42-38 loss to Memphis. A source said Birden tore ligaments in his right elbow and could miss anywhere from three to six weeks.
“Dillon will be out for sometime,” Applewhite said. “I don’t know how long, but it won’t be a week or two. So he’ll be out for awhile.”
In six games, Birden was UH’s second-leading rusher with 333 yards on 60 carries — a robust 5.6 yards per carry — and four touchdowns. He missed one game against SMU earlier this month with a stiff neck.
With Birden out, Duke Catalon will get most of the work out of the backfield, beginning in Sat-
urday’s game against No. 17 South Florida at Tampa, Fla. In the last three games, Catalon has rushed for 314 yards and six touchdowns. He is averaging nearly 23 carries per game during that span.
“Duke’s got to carry a majority of the workload,” Applewhite said.
An area of concern for the Cougars the entire season has been the lack of depth behind Catalon and Birden. None of the three challengers — Mulbah Car, Patrick Carr and Davion Mitchell — separated themselves in camp, and they have been used on a limited basis.
Car will be elevated to the backup role. He has seen significant action in two games this season, rushing for 59 yards and a touchdown in the second half against Rice and 67 yards when Birden missed the SMU game.
“We need Davion and Patrick to be available to provide a third and fourth back for us,” Applewhite said.
UH’s running game has shown signs of coming out of a season-long funk with two of its best performances this month. Behind 177 yards and two touchdowns from Catalon, Houston ran 47 times for a season-high 265 yards in a victory over SMU. Last week against Memphis, the Cougars ran a season-high 54 times for 239 yards, with Catalon having another big game with three touchdowns.
“I’ve been pleased with how we’ve run the ball the last three weeks,” Applewhite said.
But for all strides UH has made, there have still been moments that the run game has struggled. Case in point: The Cougars failed to gain a yard on second and third down in the closing minutes against the Tigers and were forced to punt. Memphis responded with the go-ahead touchdown.
The biggest adjustment for the running game has been the departure of former quarterback Greg Ward Jr., whose scrambling ability masked deficiencies and often kept drives alive. Current quarterback Kyle Postma gave a flashback to those good ‘ol days against Memphis when he picked up 28 yards on third-and-30 to set up a fourth-down attempt that UH converted on the way to a third-quarter touchdown.
Moving forward, Applewhite said increasing the load for Catalon is not ideal because Catalon has been dealing with nagging injuries of his own, with the latest being a sprained right shoulder.
“He’s played banged up,” Applewhite said. “He is a NCAA running back in Week 8. That’s why it’s a credit to him he’s playing tough and putting two mouthpieces in and going and playing. We need him to continue to do that.”
Regardless of who is in the backfield, Applewhite said the Cougars must do a better job of pass protection from the position. A sack against Tulsa pushed UH out of scoring range, and a running back’s failure to pick up a block allowed a Memphis defender to cause a fumble on a sack.
“(For our backs) playing with the football is the minimum expectation,” Applewhite said. “We have to get better playing without the football.”