UH has lot riding on OU opener
Tom Herman built it, and they came.
The University of Houston went a nearperfect 13-1 last season and tomahawked the life out of mighty Florida State on national TV on New Year’s Eve.
The rebranded Cougars have extra cash and Tilman Fertitta’s carte blanche credit card and are just one big decision away from exchanging smalltown life in the conference you forget exists for the glory of Big 12 heaven.
So it’ll be easier for Herman in Year Two, right?
No more us versus the world.
Forget the whole H-Town Takeover thing and just focus on an American Athletic Conference title repeat.
Let Heisman candidate Greg Ward Jr. carry the Coogs and just wait for another Peach Bowl — there, I said it, coach — to arrive.
Ha ha ha. No way. And Herman freely admits the fact.
“Because we’ve raised the bar so high and our internal expectations of the culture around here … what’s the saying? ‘We’ve created a monster.’ And you’ve got to feed the monster,” a steel-eyed Herman said Monday at UH’s Athletics/Alumni Center as the Coogs kicked off their first game week of 2016.
Oklahoma has been devouring the small kids
since the 1930s. This year’s Sooners are No. 3 in the country for a reason.
Herman’s reward for pulling off what so many laughed at this time last year? Trying to create magic one more time.
And instead of hosting softie Tennessee Tech and putting up 52 points on some school from the Ohio Valley Conference, it’s Bob Stoops and NRG Stadium on Saturday before a national ABC audience.
Win or hang close, and the No. 15 Coogs keep rolling. Get blown out by one of the best teams in the country in J.J. Watt’s backyard? It’ll take a little while to get the buzz back at TDECU Stadium, which UH struggled to pack in 2015 despite producing one of the best college football stories in the nation.
“There’s not a ring, there’s not a trophy — there’s nothing on the line,” Herman said. “This is an exhibition game for all intents and purposes.”
Um, yeah, right. And you wondered how the man who wore a diamond grill like a boss has been recruiting all those starry teenagers from all over Texas.
Texans coach Bill O’Brien would be proud of Herman’s one-gameat-a-time mantra. And technically, the hottest name in the amateur ranks is right. UH can still repeat the finish of its stunning 2015 run even if OU sends a declawed Shasta back to Cullen Boulevard in an ambulance.
Sooners are loaded
But much of the Coogs’ rise last season came from 5-0 to 7-0 to 10-0. By the time late November rolled around, Herman still hadn’t lost a game as a college head coach. Starting 0-1 in 2016 and hosting little Lamar at TDECU in two weeks won’t have quite the same ring if UH falls face-first Saturday at NRG.
“Oh, man. How much time you got?” said Herman, who laughed when asked if he could assess the Sooners’ strengths, then acknowledged that Stoops and his squad are everything they’re made out to be.
Herman handled the first wave of OU-UH press perfectly. He set the local public up for a potential letdown. Then he declared that his Coogs were going to play their hearts out and try to win the darn thing.
If they fall, 11 more games, and the conference can still be theirs.
If they’re victorious, it’s a dreamy win-win.
“When you think of those big games, there’s something at stake. … There’s a conference championship at stake. There’s a Peach Bowl championship at stake,” Herman said.
And this isn’t a big game?
I can argue without blinking that this is the third-biggest game of Herman’s life, and that includes his national title days as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator. Anyone who knows where the once-ignored Coogs have been and still hope to go could make a convincing case that if Herman takes down Stoops and the No. 3 team in the country, Saturday will mark the university’s present-day pinnacle. Big 12 fate not at hand
“I’ve been told by the people in charge that it isn’t (an audition for the Big 12), and I believe them. I trust them,” Herman said. “For another conference to base that decision on one game, win or lose, would be extremely shortsighted.”
I believe that. But I also know that toppling the Big 12’s highest-ranked team won’t hurt UH’s expansion chances, either.
Asked about the expectations he created and the bar he raised last year, Herman answered by referring to the Coogs’ football program, athletic department, student body and campus and the city of Houston.
All were lifted in unison last season, thanks to the coach who made his vision come true.
Keeping a non-Power Five school in the nation’s eyes from September through December won’t be any easier for Herman in 2016.
For all the other superpowers, the SEC, Big 12, Pac 12, ACC and Big Ten do the heavy lifting. For Herman, Houston’s weight never ends.