| Photos courtesy of UH Athletics
Riding a wave of momentum and exposure as a national brand, head coach Tony Levine unveiled his inaugural recruiting class Wednesday, which only added to the abundance of excitement surrounding the program.
“I would argue that there has not been a better time where there has been more publicity for the University of Houston football program than right now,” Levine said.
UH successfully addressed several areas of need, including wide receiver, where all four of last season’s starters were seniors. The Cougars signed five — and potentially six — at that position with the biggest splash coming from Deontay Greenberry, ranked as the No. 7 wide receiver nationally by Scout.com.
“He’s had a great relationship with special teams and inside receivers coach Jamie Christian from his time at Arizona State,” Levine said. “Deontay lives just west of here… in California, and is really excited to be a Cougar.”
The Cougars also signed a quarterback in Rex Dausin, who is already receiving comparisons to his record-setting predecessor Case Keenum.
“He [Case] was really a competitive player; he was good at every sport he did and I see that a lot in Rex when we were evaluating him,” offensive coordinator Mike Nesbitt said. “He did some things on his own to help his team become better.
“You see a guy who was really hungry for the opportunity to get here.”
The Cougars, ranked by some publications as the No. 1 recruiting class in Conference USA, also added a trio of offensive linemen, three running backs, four defensive linemen, four linebackers and three to four defensive backs to round out the class. Of the 24 signees, 11 earned All-State recognition, four of which were named as High School All-Americans.
“We’ve got extremely high goals and aspirations for our program and to achieve those goals, we’re going to recruit the best,” Levine said. “If you recruit the top 50 in the state of Texas and you get two or three to tell you yes, we’re going to get to where we want to be as a program.”
