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- Uncaptured Cutline
The Cougars' Shermanesque march across the South passed through Louisiana on Saturday, and the Art Briles-led charge left Tulane in smoldering ruins.
Not even a tidal wave of points in the second half could quench the torches of the marauding Cougars as UH improved to an astounding 5-1 on the season.
You can bet UH's next opponent, the Memphis Tigers, see the pillars of black smoke rising from the Cougars' trail and react with a nervous twitch of the tail.
Mauro Alvarez/The Daily Cougar
The Cougars have won four of the last six games against Memphis, and many present-day Cougars were on the team in 2001 when the Tigers ran up the score in a 52-33 win at Robertson Stadium.
From North Carolina to Texas, the Cougars have cut a swath across the South that has forced the pollsters to accord the Cougars grudging respect.
The unheralded Cougars whipped every team they were picked to beat and ambushed favored Tulane and Mississippi State, matching last year's win total in half a season.
UH posts a better record than does the darling of the Houston media, the Texas Shorthorns, who got trampled 65-13 by Oklahoma.
Briles' team was the lowest-ranked 4-1 team in the nation last week in every poll. This week, the triumphant Cougars will be the lowest-ranked 5-1 team in the nation.
Next week, the Cougars will be the lowest-ranked 6-1 team in the nation because Art Briles not only knows how to win, but also knows how not to lose — a strategy that has proved effective against every opponent except the Rice Owls, the Cougars' cousins on Main Street. The Cougars never looked back at Rice once UH took the lead in that game.
“It's a good habit to have all these games end up with a W,” Briles said after the Tulane game. “We have character. We know how to win and finish.”
Briles' team opens with a barrage of cannons and cavalry that leaves the opposition scrambling to figure out how to defend itself against the imaginative Cougar offense.
The Cougars have developed a pattern of leaping into the lead, then turning to their big play defense and special teams to fend off the ferocious comebacks hurled against them by frantic offenses battling both the Cougars and the clock.
Briles unleashed the infantry against the Green Wave, and the Cougars methodically marched to an early 28-7 lead. A field goal and a game-ending sack by defensive lineman Joe Clay preserved the shoot-'em-up 45-42 offensive display that has become a trademark at UH games this season.
Tulane scored three touchdowns in the third quarter to mount its comeback largely because the average drive began at the Cougar 45-yard line. The ball-controlling Cougars held the football for 40 minutes and 57 seconds. The UH scorched-earth ground attack prevented Tulane's resilient quick-strike offense from accomplishing an amazing comeback.
A potent offense, a big-play defense and outstanding special teams play have positioned the Cougars to add Memphis to the burning pyres of conquered foes as they march toward a showdown in two weeks against undefeated Texas Christian, the defending champions of Conference USA.
When the season began, no one — with maybe the exception of Briles and his team of opportunistic ball hawks — considered the possibility of UH playing in a bowl game.
Halfway through their schedule, the Cougars sit in the catbird's seat, one win shy of bowl eligibility and the plumb of playing in the Liberty Bowl within their hungry reach.
The rising crescendo of a winning season and a bowl game can be heard in the thunder of the Cougar offense and the do-or-die stand of their revamped defense.
It all gets back to Briles' knowing how not to lose.
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