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For UH, journey just beginning

Pressure from UH’s front seven forced SMU quarterback Neal Burcham to make quick decisions and allowed the defense to take advantage with three interceptions at Reliant Stadium on Friday. The Cougars’ defense shut out the Mustangs en route to a 34-0 victory. | Caitlin Hilton/The Daily Cougar

Pressure from UH’s front seven forced SMU quarterback Neal Burcham to make quick decisions and allowed the defense to take advantage with three interceptions at Reliant Stadium on Friday. The Cougars’ defense shut out the Mustangs en route to a 34-0 victory. | Caitlin Hilton/The Daily Cougar

When the football season began, UH had confidence in itself, even though many outside of the locker room did not.

The Cougars were coming off a 5-7 year with a bad defense and a fluid quarterback situation.

On defense, UH was one of the worst in Conference USA and was losing its best two players to the NFL when cornerback D.J. Hayden and linebacker Phillip Steward were drafted. The Cougars surrendered 36 points per game and were statistically the worst pass defense during conference play. Junior David Piland, the incumbent quarterback, was competing for his job after a bad season filled with injuries.

UH fans expected more than 5-7 after former quarterback Case Keenum guided the team to a 13-win season in 2011 — the pressure intensified as the Cougars joined the tougher American Athletic Conference on July 1.

A second consecutive losing season would have been a tough sell for the current regime as UH entered a new football stadium in August 2014. Now, head coach Tony Levine can sell UH (8-4, 5-3) as a young talented team possibly with a bright future.

The difference a year makes.

The defensive players believed, even if history went against them, said defensive coordinator David Gibbs before the season.

“Down through the history, Houston hasn’t played very good defense,” Gibbs said.

“They don’t listen to when people beat them up and when their confidence is shaken, so they don’t remember last year. They don’t remember that they aren’t supposed to be very good on defense. That works to our advantage.”

The unfounded confidence sounded like hubris, but after holding opponents to 20 points per game and leading the nation in forced turnovers, no one is laughing at the UH defense anymore.

The Cougars have developed young playmakers on defense. Sophomore safety Trevon Stewart leads the nation in turnovers responsible for and set a UH record with six fumble recoveries, while sophomore defensive back Adrian McDonald has five interceptions, but better play inside the trenches has has also helped forged a tougher defense. The Cougars are able to get pressure on the quarterback with just four down defensive linemen for the first time in his tenure, Levine said. This offseason, UH simplified its defense, allowing for less practice time devoted to learning the scheme.

“Simplifying our defensive package allows us more time to work on tackling, to work on the fundamentals, to work on creating turnovers, and you’ve seen the great combination this season of everything I just talked about,” Levine said. “We’ve simplified, we’ve stressed techniques and fundamentals, and the results to me have been very evident.”

UH doesn’t lose any players from its defensive line rotation. The Cougars lose only two defensive starters this offseason.

On offense, freshman quarterback John O’Korn has taken the reins of the team. His strong arm has added a vertical element to UH’s offense after he made his start in week three. O’Korn has had struggles this season — during UH’s three-game losing streak, he completed less than 50 percent of his passes and averaged 174 yards per game — but he displayed skills that have many expecting that he can develop into a strong quarterback.

O’Korn was able to find inside receivers Deontay Greenberry and Daniel Spencer as they gashed defenses across the middle of the field. Both weapons will return next season, when the Cougars christen their new football stadium.

Despite their promise, though, the Cougars need to learn to win close games against good opponents. UH had BYU, UCF, Louisville and Cincinnati on the ropes, but couldn’t close the door, losing the four games by 20 points combined.

Without closing the door against any one of the aforementioned teams, UH’s best win was against either Rice (9-3, 7-1), which will host the C-USA title game on Saturday, or Rutgers (5-6, 2-5), a squad that has struggled to gain bowl eligibility amid bullying allegations about the coaching staff.

With a greater emphasis on recruiting bigger, faster players, more resources behind the program and momentum following a turnaround season, the Cougars have the tools to build a consistent winner. However, the signature wins need to follow for UH to attain the level of success it wants.

Senior defensive back Zachary McMillian said the turnaround took the entire team buying into the plan — something UH will need if it hopes to continue winning

“That goes to what we started on at the beginning of the year with ‘Something to Prove.’ We wanted to make sure we maintained that chip on our shoulder throughout the whole year. We didn’t want to go back to having the same year we had last year.”

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