Lost amidst the hoopla of the upcoming NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament was the release on Tuesday of the football schedules of the Houston Cougars and the Rice Owls. And knowing Cougar fans the way I do, I’m sure they’re already starting to form their excuses for failing to sell out the stadium for this upcoming season’s games.
The Cougar home schedule doesn’t feature a prestige name like Texas Tech, so there are fans who will claim they won’t buy tickets for an inferior product. And the home schedule contains two Friday night games — one currently scheduled for a 9:15 kickoff — which means we’ll hear the same old crap about an unsafe neighborhood. Finally, there’s the old “the stadium sucks” excuse.
But overall, the Cougars are playing a schedule somewhat equal to last season’s and which puts the Cougars in prime position for climbing, once again, high up into the national rankings.
The Cougar season kicks off on Saturday, September 4, when they host
Texas State. That next Friday, on September 10, the Cougars host UTEP
on national TV, appearing on one of the many ESPN networks, in a game
set to kick-off at 9:15. The Cougars then travel to Los Angeles to play
UCLA in the Rose Bowl on September 18.
The Bruins will be the first of
three Automatic Bowl Qualifying teams that the Cougars face this season
(they also faced three last season, and they won all three, and those
three wins helped people to realized that the Cougars were for real.).
The other two schools are Mississippi State, which visits Houston and
Robertson Stadium on October 9 in a game in which Mississippi State will
undoubtedly be seeking revenge for last season’s loss. And the Cougars
will close out the regular season by traveling to Lubbock to face the
Texas Tech Red Raiders on November 27.
If the rest of the season goes
as planned, then a victory over Texas Tech could propel the Cougars high
up in the rankings as bowl season nears.
The rest of the Cougar schedule includes hosting Tulane on September 25,
visiting Rice on October 16, visiting SMU on October 23, going to
Memphis on October 30, hosting UCF for a nationally televised Friday
night game on November 5. They close out the season by hosting Tulsa on
November 13, visiting Southern Mississippi on November 20, then heading
out to Lubbock for the game with Texas Tech.
“We have two nationally televised games at Robertson Stadium which will
show how competitive Conference USA is and give us some national exposure
in the process,” Cougar head coach Kevin Sumlin said Tuesday.
“Finally, we will be stepping out of conference to play opponents from
the Big 12, PAC 10 and the SEC.”
The Rice Owls will kick off the season in style as they face up against
the Texas Longhorns at Reliant Stadium on September 4. The Owls won’t
even leave the state of Texas until October 23 as all seven games to
start the season will be either at Rice Stadium or within the state.
Starting with Texas, the Owls will travel to North Texas on September 11,
host Northwestern on September 18, host Baylor on September 25, travel
to El Paso to take on UTEP on October 9, and host the Cougars on October
16.
The Owls first game out of state will be on October 23 when the Owls
play UCF in Orlando. After a week off, the Owls will travel to Tulsa,
then head to New Orleans to take on Tulane on November 13. The Owls
will close out the season by hosting ECU on November 20 and UAB on
November 27.
There’s a chance of some very good college football being played in the
Houston area this upcoming season. While Rice will probably struggle,
the games against Northwestern and Baylor should offer some
entertainment, especially with Baylor coach Art Briles making his first
return for a game in Houston since leaving the Cougars to take the
Baylor job. And the Cougars are primed to jump into a state of national
conscious not seen for a Cougar team since the Jack Pardee era.
“We are extremely excited about the upcoming season and the 2010
football season,” UH Athletic Director Mack Rhoades said. “Our
university and our football program will have the opportunity to
showcase itself on national television versus two very good opponents.
We think these two Friday night games have the opportunity to be
terrific special events for our campus, the Houston community, and our
fans.”
Of course, for that to happen, the fans are actually going to have to
show up for once.
This article appears in Mar 18-24, 2010.
