Be it 3 sacks or 2 TDs, transfers quick to make impression
Sleep will come easier now for UH’s Chambers after an impressive opening act
Isaiah Chambers could not sleep. He tossed and turned. He had night sweats.
“A lot of stuff was going through my mind,” Chambers said.
It had been 1,029 days, a span of roughly 33 months, since Chambers last played in a football game.
On the eve of his debut as a defensive end for the University of Houston, Chambers was consumed by all types of emotions.
“Just nervous. What if I don’t have it anymore?” said Chambers, a former fourstar recruit from Aldine MacArthur who began his career at TCU before transferring to Houston prior to last season.
Chambers woke up six times early
Saturday, not exactly the recipe for a good night’s sleep with a 5:50 a.m. wakeup call and a teammate sharing a hotel room.
“Hardly any sleep,” defensive end Zach Vaughan said with a laugh. “I’m a big snorer, so nobody wanted to room with me.”
At the last minute, Vaughan and Chambers were paired as roommates at the team hotel, an assignment that will remain for the remaining road games this season.
“I didn’t know what to expect with Isaiah,” Vaughan said. “Believe it or not, my snoring was not the issue.
“He was up every hour on the hour just doing crazy stuff. He’s up at 1 a.m. stretching. Up at 2 a.m., he’s washing his face. Up at 3 a.m., he’s just pounding water. At 4 a.m., he’s snacking on something. I finally told him, ‘You going to go to sleep?’ ”
When he finally dozed off, Chambers woke up in a cold sweat.
“At one point in my dream, I got into the game and did bad,” he said. “That was a nightmare.” ‘It was all I hoped it would be’ Turns out the worry was all for naught. Chambers recorded a sack on the second play after entering the game and finished with three in the Cougars’ 45-27 season-opening win over Rice at Rice Stadium.
“It was all I hoped it would be,” Chambers said.
Even when the team buses arrived at Rice Stadium just before 9 a.m. Saturday, Chambers still had “a lot of butterflies.”
He entered the game on Rice’s first series and came off the edge for a sack of quarterback Shawn Stankavage. A sense of calm overcame Chambers. “I realized it’s just football,” he said.
After the sack, teammates who knew he was nervous in his collegiate debut mobbed Chambers on the field.
“How does it feel for your first one?” his teammates said.
Chambers was highly recruited and ranked the seventh-best defensive end in the country in 2016. He never played a snap for TCU, redshirting his only season before deciding to transfer home to be closer to family.
He had to sit out last season, per NCAA transfer rules, meaning it would be almost three years, a lifetime in college football, between his final high school game and Saturday’s debut.
“It was tough, but I just trusted God,” Chambers said. “I knew the plan and knew one day I had the talent to be good. I just had to tough it out, and soon I would be playing.” Tate to provide formidable challenge
Chambers said he benefited from Rice’s focusing on blocking All-America defensive tackle Ed Oliver, who had 13 tackles and 3½ tackles for loss in the game.
“You know there’s a lot of attention on Ed,” Chambers said. “He’s the best player in the nation, and we all know that. We know that frees us up to be one-on-one. When you are one-on-one, you need to win those matchups.”
A tougher challenge awaits Saturday against Arizona dual-threat quarterback Khalil Tate, a preseason Heisman Trophy candidate.
“He’s chasing a different animal,” UH coach Major Applewhite said. “Sacks will be harder to come by.”
As for Chambers, he undoubtedly was able to sleep better after Saturday’s game.
He woke up Sunday as the nation’s leader in sacks.
“That’s pretty cool,” he said. “Hopefully, I can stay there and keep it throughout the whole year.”