Coogs Win...With A Running Game?

Bryce Beall ran wild

Football is a game of adjustments. The team that makes the proper adjustments at the right time is usually going to be the team that wins when things are otherwise more or less equal.

So it was obvious when, come the start of Friday’s Houston/UTEP game, UTEP drove the field for a touchdown without the UH doing much defensive damage, that the Cougar defense was going to have to make some adjustments.

Make those adjustments they did, winning the game 54-24.

The Cougar offense began their game adjustments on their second play.
On their first play, trailing 7-0, Keenum threw deep for James
Cleveland, and missed. Then the offense made an adjustment they’d been
working on all week.

And it was something rather revolutionary and
unexpected for the Cougars — a little something known as the running
game.

The Cougar defense adjusted to a UTEP offense trying to run a spread
offense. The UTEP defense never adjusted to a UH offense going with a
power running game.

A power running game that saw junior Bryce Beall
have the game of his college career, scoring three times and gaining 195
yards on 19 rushes. Beall was joined in the rushing fun by juco
transfer Michael Hayes who also scored three times on 17 rushes for 77
yards to go with four receptions for 75 yards.

The offense gained a total of 656 yards, but only one of the team’s
seven touchdowns came by way of their customary passing game. And even
then, that TD was one of adjustment as it was junior QB Cotton Turner,
subbing for the injured Case Keenum, who tossed a beauty of a pass to
James Cleveland.

Turner was in the game because of a third-quarter injury to Keenum,
every Cougars’ fan worst nightmare. Keenum threw an interception and
appeared to be kicked in the helmet as he attempted to make the tackle.

But ultimately, Keenum, who finished 15 for 24 for 279 yards and one
interception, was secondary to the coming-out party of Beall and the UH
offensive line.

“I said earlier in the week, the most physical team, and the team that
was going to be able to run the ball, and could stop the run, would win
the game,” head coach Kevin Sumlin said after the game. “And our
offensive line took that as a challenge.”

The offensive line, which normally is tasked with keeping rushers off of
Keenum long enough for a pass, excelled, dominating the line of
scrimmage and opening hole after hole for Beall, Hayes, and anybody else
running the football.

“It was fun,” Beall said. “Our O-line did a great job. We knew that
coming in we would have a chance to run the ball. It was just fun to go
out there and picking out holes to run through, and hitting them and
running hard.”

Beall was somewhat of a forgotten man for the UH offense last season,
which was rather strange seeing as how he was the C-USA freshman
offensive player of the year several seasons ago. But his number was
called on Friday night, and he responded.

As did Hayes, Turner, and the
rest of the offense.

The UTEP defense was never able to fully adjust to the Cougars changed
offensive attack, and the UTEP offense, which went heavy on the pass due
to the absence of stud running back Donald Buckram, was never able,
while the game was still in doubt, to actually mount another good
offensive drive and put points up on the board.

Sumlin admitted after the game that UTEP came out playing the exact
opposite of what he and the coaches had been prepping the Cougars all
week, but the coaches and players adjusted to the new look UTEP offense
and put a stop to the Miners hopes.

As a result, the Cougars got a win that was important for several
reasons. It was a conference win. They were able to win without
Keenum.

And with the stress on the running game, the Cougars served
notice to the rest of the teams they’re playing this season that they
just can’t focus on stopping the passing game. Not as long as Bryce
Beall is around.

Next up for the 2-0 Cougars is a trip to Pasadena and the Rose Bowl next
Saturday to take on the UCLA Bruins.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

The Coogs made it into the top 25, coming in at 23 in bothe the AP and USA Today polls…The announced attendance for Friday’s game was 32,119. This was the
second straight sellout of Robertson Stadium, and it was the first time
that the Cougars have ever actually sold out Robertson on consecutive
games….Speaking of the crowd, the Cougar defense was adamant in their
belief that the UTEP offense, which suffered numerous false start
penalties throughout the game, were thrown off by the crowd noise. “I’m
pretty sure it was the noise,” linebacker Marcus McGraw said. “I could
barely hear out there. It might have been even louder than it was last
week.”…Kevin Sumlin said on Sunday afternoon that Case Keenum was displaying symptoms of a mild concussion. The team has been following a concussion management plan since Saturday morning. While Keenum’s condition “has improved dramatically,” his prognosis for this week is day-to-day….Cotton Turner said his task was
made easier by the excellent play of Beall, Hayes, and the offensive
line as well as by his weekly game preparation.. “Just go out there and
execute the offense the way you do in practice and the way you know how
to do it,” he said. ‘You kind of just prepare yourself like you’ll be
the starter every week.”