2011 Houston Cougars Football Preview

Case Keenum remains on campus in Houston. That’s the biggest single piece of news to emerge from the Houston Cougars’ offseason. Now, a program that was dealt a Murphy’s Law type of season in 2010 can reload and aim for the conference crown it so deeply seeks.

In recent years, there’s no question that what was already a solid program under former coach Art Briles – it won the 2006 Conference USA championship, after all – has actually gotten even better on an overall level. Houston cracked the national top 15 in the polls in 2009 after beating Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. The Cougars faltered in the Conference USA title game against East Carolina, but they still put together a very solid season that heightened the profile of the football program. Current coach Kevin Sumlin has made himself a coaching star by luring a better caliber of athlete to Houston and instilling a harder edge into the program. Now that Keenum is around for one more year, Sumlin and his charges can make one more big run at the C-USA flag.

Keenum, the heralded signal caller who merited a small place in the 2009 Heisman Trophy race, was granted a sixth-year of eligibility after his 2010 campaign was cut short by a knee injury during the third game of the season at UCLA. Despite the fact that Keenum missed the final three fourths of the season, the Cougar offense – which also lost second-string quarterback Cotton Turner to injury as well - still ranked in the top five in the nation in passing yards. The wins, however, did not follow from those numbers, largely because third-stringer David Piland – who actually performed quite well given his lack of experience and preparation – was still unavoidably shaky in big games against Central Florida and Tulsa. Piland gave it his best shot, but the youthful signal caller did not expect to be UH’s main man when the season began. He faced  a steep learning curve and held up quite well in a larger context, but he clearly wasn’t ready to win a conference championship, which is based on the ability to be relentlessly consistent over a three-month span.

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At any rate, Sumlin had his first losing season in three years at Houston. Now, with Keenum back in the saddle, UH is primed for a resurgence as long as Number 7 can stay healthy and deliver darts from the pocket for a full season. The Cougars return seven starters from each side of the ball, including 1,000-yard wide receiver Patrick Edwards. Houston must replace three linemen, but on the defensive side of the ball, the Cougars will retain more talent: UH will return all three linebackers, giving much-needed ballast to the Coogs in the realms of run support and pass coverage.

The schedule is toned down for the Cougars. After losing to all three BCS opponents in 2010 by at least two touchdowns, the 2011 Cougars will face just one foe from an automatic qualifying conference. Ironically, the same UCLA squad that brought so much misery to the Cougars last season will make the trek to Houston in week one. The 2010 matchup with the Bruins showed that the Cougars weren’t going to be able to capture the success of the previous two seasons. In much the same way, the 2011 opener will be a great way to account for the prowess of this year’s Houston squad. The Cougars play East Carolina at home, while not facing Central Florida during the regular season, a huge plus. A regular season finale with Tulsa should be a great contest; moreover, it could very well decide the C-USA West Division champion for the coming football campaign.