Subject: Kevin Sumlin

• New Cougar Head Coach: Kevin Sumlin

  December 13, 2007

• John Royal’s College Football Preview

  August 29, 2008

• The College Football Review, With a Little More Ashley Judd

  September 2, 2008

• College Football Review: Zero Tolerance Helps BYU Win

  September 8, 2008

• Houston: Cradle Of Black Coaches

  College football is getting a lot of well-deserved heat for its lack of minority head coaches at its highest level, the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division 1-A).Of the 119 coaches at FBS programs, only six are black. And that's in a sport where, safe to say, there are plenty of black players who are helping colleges reap the billions in dollars they do.Houston, though, has some opportunity to brag: fully one-third of the NCAA's black coaches have a local connection!

  December 24, 2008

• At Least One Football Team In Town Is Supposed To Be Good This Year (Hint: They Don't Get Paid)

  ​Most of Houston's football focus is going to the Houston Texans, who are once again striving to produce an actual winning season. But there are several other football teams in Houston, and today, one of those teams officially reports for preseason camp.The team in question is the Houston Cougars, and unlike the Texans and their quest for a mythical winning season, the Cougars over the past several years have been producing winning records. And last season, the Cougars actually won a bowl game

  August 6, 2009

• Media Day For The Coogs: They're Quietly Confident This Year

  ​Case Keenum is the name most people think of when the University of Houston football team is mentioned. That's probably because Keenum, a junior, plays the glamor position of quarterback.He was the 2008 Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year. He threw for 5,020 yards last season while tossing 44 touchdowns. Keenum's the one who has to make the proper reads and find the right receivers, but as much as Keenum deserves the accolades (he's on the media watch list for the 2009 Davey O'Brien A

  August 12, 2009

• If There's A Watch List For QB Awards, UH's Case Keenum's On It

  Photo courtesy UH​If the honor is in being nominated, then UH quarterback Case Keenum can just go ahead and shut it down before the season gets started. The junior QB, last season's Conference USA offensive player of the year, has had his name added to two more postseason watch lists, putting him on four with the season still weeks away and preseason practice being just a little over a week old.Then again, after having talked to Keenum, his coach, and several of his teammates, I have the feeli

  August 18, 2009

• Cougars' Run For The Title Begins Saturday

  Photo courtesy UH​The start of meaningful football games is finally here, and Saturday night at 6 p.m., the Houston Cougars start their quest to win the Conference USA Title when they take on the Northwestern State Demons of the Southland Conference at Robertson Stadium. The Cougars are starting their second season under head coach Kevin Sumlin, while the Demons are led by first year head coach Bradley Dale Peveto.  "It's game week finally," Sumlin said at yesterday's media gathering. "We

  September 2, 2009

• Easy Win Over, Now UH Gets Ready For A Top-Ten Team

  Photo courtesy UH​The Houston Cougars came out and dominated the Northwestern State Demons last Saturday, scoring on their first five possessions on the way to a 55-7 win. But this week's contest is going to be a bit tougher as the Cougars are traveling to Stillwater to take on the fifth-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys.This will be the Cougars first game against an opponent ranked in the Top 10 since a loss to number-eight Louisville in the 2004 season finale."They're a really good football te

  September 9, 2009

• Yeah, That Was Quite The Upset On UH's Part

  Photo courtesy UH​"If we play as good as we can play," Houston Cougars head coach Kevin Sumlin said last week, "I think everybody will be happy."Saturday, the Houston Cougars played as good as they could play, and they pulled off the upset of the college football weekend, defeating the then fifth-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys by the score of 45-35.Junior quarterback Case Keenum seemed to treat the Oklahoma State defense like a cat treats a mouse, playing with his various toys and just do

  September 14, 2009

• The Gary Kubiak Experiment Should Be About Over, Shouldn't It?

  Photo by William Holtkamp​Stop me if you've heard this one before."We obviously weren't ready to play and that starts with me," Gary Kubiak said Sunday. "You play that poorly, that starts with the coach. I didn't have them ready to go."Yeah, that sounds pretty damn familiar to me. Take any Houston Texans loss since Gary Kubiak has been coach, especially a loss where the team looked bad -- particularly Pittsburgh and Oakland last season -- and you'll see where Gary Kubiak has made much the same

  September 15, 2009

• Coogs Try To Forget About Their Biggest Win In Years

  Photo courtesy UH​"Everything just slowed down. It was in slow motion," Houston Cougar running back Bryce Beall told Hair Balls yesterday. "I just told myself, whatever you do, do not drop this ball. When it got in there I just made sure I grabbed it and held on tight and took it to the ground."The ball was a pass from the hand of teammate Case Keenum that was deflected in the air by a defender from Oklahoma State. It was fourth-and-goal for the Cougars, there was a little over six minutes

  September 16, 2009

• UH vs. Texas Tech

  September 24, 2009

• Scientists Unsure Whether Huge Reading Indicates Giant Tsunami, Or Coogs Falling To Earth

  Photo courtesy UH​In retrospect, what happened to the Houston Cougars on Saturday night in El Paso shouldn't have been that much of a surprise.Yes, the team was coming off of a last-minute win against Texas Tech. And yes, UTEP was 1-3 and coming off a humiliating defeat to the Texas Longhorns.But the precedent between UTEP and UH was there, in that just last season UTEP jumped out to the 28-9 halftime lead before the Cougars stormed back for the winThis year's Cougars, however, were supp

  October 5, 2009

• Coogs Try To Shake Off UTEP As They Take On The SEC

  Photo courtesy UH​Many words were said by Houston Cougar head coach Kevin Sumlin and his players at yesterday's media luncheon. But of those many words, none captured the spirit of Saturday's loss to UTEP better than those of cornerback Brandon Brinkley: "I felt embarrassed."Quarterback Case Keenum talked of a bad taste left in his mouth. Linebacker Marcus McGraw spoke of the team not stepping up its game and doing the job. But none said it better than Brinkley, who continued that "as a

  October 7, 2009

• Coogs Find Their Way Back To Their Winning Ways

  Photo by Fred Trask​"It's hard to win every Saturday," Houston Cougars head coach Kevin Sumlin said Saturday afternoon. "But to go on the road and win, particularly in a place like this with so much tradition, it's a big boost for us."The Cougars defeated Mississippi State 31-24 on Saturday. And the win might have provided a boost for the Cougars players, but it also provided a big boost for the football program as the win vaulted the team back into both the AP and the Coaches polls while

  October 12, 2009

• Coogs Try To Actually Win One In Conference USA

  ​Way back in August, way back when the Houston Cougars were just starting to practice, way back when the temperature was in the 100s instead of the 90s, way back then, at Media Day, head coach Kevin Sumlin and the players met with the media.They didn't care about the rankings, they said. They didn't care about the BCS. They cared about only those things they had control over: playing each game to the best of their ability; handling everything one week at a time; and winning Conference USA.

  October 14, 2009

• Cougars Better Not Be Looking Past SMU, Sumlin Says

  Photo courtesy UH​"We've got our work cut out for us," Houston Cougars head coach Kevin Sumlin said yesterday about the team's game with the SMU Mustangs this weekend. And though that's pretty much coaching cliché number one, Sumlin is hinting at the actual truth this time out.The Mustangs, though 3-3 on the season, are 2-0 in Conference USA play, and are tied for first place in the West Division, the same division in which the 5-1 (1-1) Cougars reside. This is thus a game the Cougars n

  October 21, 2009

• Coogs Grind Out A Relatively Unimpressive Win

  Photo courtesy UH​"I still don't think we've played our best football yet," Houston Cougars head coach Kevin Sumlin said Saturday night. "To be 6-1,and as a coach, to think that you haven't played your best football yet is pretty encouraging."Sumlin's statements came not long after Houston's 38-15 defeat of SMU at Robertson Stadium. And looking at the score, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Cougars completely dominated the football game all night. But were it not for some bad off

  October 26, 2009

• Coogs Hope To Keep Grabbing Those Turnovers

  Photo courtesy UH​"As a team, I still don't think we've played our best game," Houston Cougars head coach Kevin Sumlin stated at yesterday's media luncheon. "It's still out there for us. I think we can be better."The Cougars are 6-1 on the season, and if the team's best game is still out there waiting to be played, then the rest of Conference USA better be on notice, starting with this week's opponent, the 5-3 Southern Miss Golden Eagles.  The Cougars definitely didn't play their best gam

  October 28, 2009

• Coogs Pull Off a Last-Minute Win, Thanks to Fendi Onobun

  Photo by Fred Trask​Case Keenum delivered his standard Heisman-worthy performance. Charles Sims continued his fantastic freshman season. James Cleveland and Patrick Edwards caught key touchdown passes. But the Houston Cougars 50-43 last minute win over the Southern Miss Golden Eagles can, perhaps, best be attributed to unheralded senior tight end Fendi Onobun, a transfer from Arizona. Onobun didn't make a mark by catching any passes from Keenum. He made his mark in the first half on s

  November 2, 2009

• Coogs Take On Tulsa, Where The Hurricanes Are Golden

  Photo courtesy UH​Before this football season began, it was thought that the Tulsa Golden Hurricane would be the toughest competition to the Houston Cougars for the C-USA West championship. But as both teams head into game number nine this weekend, it's beginning to look like those fears might have been a bit overblown.Tulsa is 4-4 on the season. More importantly, Tulsa is 2-2 in C-USA play having lost to UTEP and SMU the last two weeks. In fact, coming into Saturday night's game against th

  November 4, 2009

• Cardiac Coogs Test The Hearts Of Their Faithful

  Photo courtesy UH​It was just last month that Matt Hogan was the third-string kicker and back-up punter for the Houston Cougars. But after his 51-yard field goal soared through the goal posts as the clock reached 00:00 on Saturday night, it's very doubtful that Hogan will have to worry about winning another midweek kicking contest this season.After the Cougars defeat of Tulane three weeks ago, head coach Kevin Sumlin held a kicking competition amongst all of the kickers on the team as he and

  November 9, 2009

• UH's Case Keenum -- What's A Dude Got To Do To Get Some Heisman Love?

  ​The end of the college football season is fast approaching, and the rest of the nation is finally learning something that Houston Cougar fans have known all season. The best player in the country isn't Colt McCoy or Tim Tebow. The best player is Case Keenum.Several sites which poll Heisman voters throughout the season have Keenum listed as the number-two choice behind Alabama running back Mark Ingram and ahead of McCoy and Tebow.Tim Brando of CBS Sports and Kirk Bohls of the Austin American

  November 11, 2009

• The Cougars Run Into Upset City, Again

  Photo courtesy UH​It's easy to blame the Houston Cougar defense for Saturday's 37-32 loss to the University of Central Florida Knights. After all, the Knights scored 37 points, gained 393 yards, and controlled the ball for almost 40 minutes of  of the game.If the defense makes some plays, then the loss doesn't happen.Houston Cougar head coach Kevin Sumlin has said in the past that his guys win as a team, and they lose as a team. And Case Keenum, who likely saw his Heisman chances torped

  November 16, 2009

• Game Time: Road Trip Edition, The Middle And The End

  ​(Cue cheesy announcer voice:) "When we last left our our venerable 1560 The Game crew of Pendergast, Nuno and Ramzanali, they were checking into the Norman, Oklahoma Days Inn at 2:30 in the morning, readying themselves for three days of free continental breakfast and lumpy mattresses. To read about the trip up to Norman, click here. We press on..."FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13: As I mentioned in the blog post about our trip up to Norman, this trip was one of those combination business-pleasure type tr

  November 16, 2009

• Title Dreams Are Likely Gone, But Coogs Try To Regroup

  Photo courtesy UH​Nobody needs to tell the Houston Cougars that they messed up last Saturday. They're well aware of that fact on their own.But they're now trying to forget about what happened last week while they attempt to do the most important thing in the world: concentrate on Saturday's game against Memphis."All our focus right now is on Memphis and what we need to do to win this game," head coach Kevin Sumlin said at Tuesday's media luncheon. "We're happy to be home for our last two r

  November 20, 2009