Cougars to employ rapid-fire plays
At the controls of the University of Houston’s offense, quarterback D’Eriq King may be the best person to ask what to expect after changes this offseason.
“Get ready for tempo and the offense being really fast,” King said. “By the time you look up we’ll probably be running the next play.”
What the Cougars’ offense will look like in Saturday’s season opener at Rice is a bit of a mystery because practices were closed throughout the spring and preseason camp. It is clear, however, that it will include familiar concepts from new offensive coordinator Kendal Briles’ previous stops at Baylor and Florida Atlantic, where he produced some of the most explosive offenses in the nation.
Coach Major Applewhite offers two words: “Pace and space.”
“You’ll see us play faster, play in space more and be more aggressive down the field,” Applewhite said.
Entering his second full season as coach, Applewhite said there is no set amount of time for UH to snap the ball, although the team wants to “hit around the 90-play marker or beyond” each game. That would represent a big change for the Cougars, who averaged 73 plays last season.
The idea is to push the tempo in such a way that not only does it make it difficult for opposing defenses to adjust, but it also causes a toll physically.
“There are times we want to be
in fifth gear and times we want to back it down to first gear,” Applewhite said. “Sometimes we want to pause and take a look at the defense.”
In January, Applewhite made the decision to go another direction offensively, hiring Briles away from Florida Atlantic after one season. The Cougars struggled to find an identity, ranking 61st in FBS in total offense (428 yards per game) and averaging 28.3 points, the program’s fewest in 12 years. At FAU, Briles’ offense ranked eighth in scoring (40.6) and fifth in total offense (498).
King, a junior from Manvel, is the starter after taking over the quarterback job for the final four games last season. Behind a veteran offensive line should be a deep backfield that includes Terence Williams, a Baylor transfer who rushed for 1,000 yards two years ago; Mulbah Car, a backup his first two seasons; and Patrick Carr, a former Colorado transfer who is set for a bigger role after playing sparingly last season.
Where the Cougars could have growing pains is at receiver, where they must replace the talented duo of Steven Dunbar and Linell Bonner. UH’s offense stresses speed, while usually in four-receiver sets, so Briles is expected to experiment with more than a halfdozen options, among them Raelon Singleton, Keith Corbin, Courtney Lark, Marquez Stevenson, Bryson Smith, Terry Mark and a group of freshmen.
Do the Cougars have the personnel to make the up-tempo offense work?
“They haven’t always had RGIII. They’ve had multiple quarterbacks and they’ve gone to games where they didn’t even have a quarterback,” Applewhite said of Briles’ past offenses at Baylor, which included Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III.
“They have shaped their scheme around a lot of different sets of skill. There are some things we are able to do that they were able to do at Florida Atlantic and Baylor, and there’s some things you can’t do because you don’t have that personnel. There are some things we can do they couldn’t do at those schools. It’s all about fitting your scheme to the pieces.”
In preparation, Rice coach Mike Bloomgren said his staff had to watch film from Baylor and FAU.
“We’ve never played anybody from the Baylor family tree so it’s going to be different,” he said. “One thing I think we can bet on is the ball throwing and the snap fast.”
Even Briles is eager to see the product the Cougars put on the field.
“Whenever you get into your first game you never really know what you got until you go to battle with a group of kids,” he said. “The first game always tells you kind of where you are at. Talk to me around 4 o’clock Saturday to see where we are at.”