Murderers’ row schedule awaits Holgorsen
New coach is greeted by Oklahoma in opener, a lineup of games rated nation’s 6th toughest
At an event earlier this offseason, new University of Houston football coach Dana Holgorsen joked that he just can’t seem to get away from Oklahoma.
For seven seasons, Holgorsen went head-tohead with the Sooners when he was at West Virginia. He lost all seven games, so pardon Holgorsen if he did not look in the Big 12 rearview mirror when he pulled out of Morgantown.
“I could never beat Oklahoma,” Holgorsen said as he sat next to good friend and former OU coach Bob Stoops during a college football roundtable in early May. “That’s the only school in the Big 12 we could never get over that dang hump. We lost 59-56 (last season) and I’m like, ‘I’m out of here.’ ”
After taking the UH job, Holgorsen looked at the 2019 schedule.
His first game with UH? Sept. 1 in Norman.
“I can’t catch a break,” he said.
Athlon Sports ranks UH’s 2019 schedule as the sixth toughest in the nation, a slate of games that includes a pair of Power Five opponents (OU and Washington State) and the top three teams (Central Florida, Memphis and Cincinnati) in the American Athletic Conference last season.
Those five teams went a combined 54-13, a .806 winning percentage. All told, the 12 teams on the Cougars’ schedule had a combined .562 winning percentage with seven playing in bowls.
That’s in stark contrast to the Cougars’ 2018 schedule, which was one of the easiest in the nation (.380) and featured just four teams playing in the postseason.
The first month of the season should provide some hint of how things may go for the Cougars, who, after traveling to OU, play Prairie View A&M in the home opener. That’s followed by a meeting with Washington State in the Advocare Texas Kickoff at NRG Stadium, a road game against Tulane to open AAC play and a final non-conference game against talented senior quarterback Mason Fine and North Texas in Denton.
UH must deal with short preparation time with the first four games coming on a Sunday, Saturday, Friday and Thursday
The usual suspects await in the AAC West Division: Memphis (which has beaten the Cougars three straight years), Navy, Tulane, SMU and Tulsa.
The cross-division games include Cincinnati, coming off just the third 11-win season in the program’s 131-year history; two-time defending AAC champion UCF; and bottom-feeder Connecticut, which leaves the league after the season. The winner of the AAC should be in position to grab the Group of Five’s spot in a New Year’s Six bowl for the third year in a row.
Every major national preseason magazine predicts the Cougars to finish second behind Memphis in the AAC West.
With Holgorsen bringing his version of the Air Raid, featuring dynamic quarterback D’Eriq King and a cast that returns virtually intact, the Cougars are not expected to skip a beat on offense.
Biggest question heading into August preseason camp: How will the defense respond after one of the historically worst performances in school history? Holgorsen and his staff made significant upgrades across-theboard in the offseason, signing a dozen players (via transfer and junior college ranks) who could see significant playing time.
Just in time, as the Cougars face the No. 1 (OU), No. 6 (UCF), No. 7 (Memphis), No. 15 (Washington State), No. 23 (Cincinnati) and No. 27 (North Texas) scoring offenses from last season.
It all begins Sept. 1 against a familiar opponent. the Sooners, at least, are not on the future schedule after this year’s return game for the 2016 meeting (a 33-23 UH win at NRG Stadium).
And Holgorsen is right. He can’t catch a break.
OU has produced a pair of Heisman Trophy winners at quarterback the past two years, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. Both are gone. Enter Alabama transfer Jalen Hurts, the Channelview native who makes his OU debut against UH.
“At least their Heisman Trophy quarterbacks are gone,” Holgorsen said. “And then they go out and get a guy that is 30-2 as a starter.”