On another hot and sunny day in Houston, the Cougars were back on the field to prepare for Saturday’s away game against Alabama.
The Cougars went through their drills and schemes routinely and seemed like they almost forgot about Saturday’s tough 37-35 loss to East Carolina.
"Good practice, very focused, very determined. It feels good to get back on the field after last week. What we want to do is come out and be a better football team, and that’s what we’re working on," head coach Art Briles said. "This week it’s about us, it’s about us improving, it’s about us taking care of the mechanics of football, the necessities of the football game."
The defense seemed very loose throughout practice. Senior linebacker Brendan Pahulu occasionally cracked a few jokes while cheerfully yelling. Pahulu feels great going into Saturday’s game.
"Practice went well today. We haven’t lost anything. We got a great plan, but we just got to execute before we go play the ‘Bama boys," Pahulu said.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Cougars looked sharp, especially sophomore quarterback Blake Joseph.
Joseph’s passes looked crisp and on target, and he did well leading his receivers through most of practice.
"Today we came out real sharp and this week we were trying to focus on ourselves. After Alabama we have six conference games, so we got to get ready for that," Joseph said. "We’re intent on beating Alabama this week.
"Practice makes perfect. So I just want to be sharp this week, going into this week’s game, and just execute the plays better than we did last Saturday."
Joseph came into Saturday’s game for redshirt quarterback Case Keenum and almost led the Cougars back to a victory. Joseph finished 24-of-29 for 250 yards and two touchdowns.
The trend for the Cougars seems to be that the backup quarterback comes into games and is able to move the offense better than the starter, and Briles said it’s more what the opponents are doing rather than what his quarterbacks are doing.
"In defense of that it sometimes takes us a couple of series to see what the defense is doing," Briles said.
Keenum left the game against East Carolina due to an injury to his hand. Joseph took most of the snaps in practice, while Keenum didn’t seem to have his best practice.
"(Keenum’s hand) is fine. They both had good practices and we’ll go through the week and see what happens. They’re both good football players and I anticipate both of them playing on Saturday," Briles said.
The offense put together some new plays they haven’t used in the first couple of games, and both quarterbacks looked comfortable running them.
"We’re just working on the rollouts this week. We haven’t really run them in the first four games, but you should see some next game," Joseph said.
When starters from both sides of the ball came together to practice, the defense looked sharper and forced the offense into some errors, but Pahulu sees that as a good thing for the defense.
"That bodes well for the defense, defense wins games. We got to go out to Alabama and execute to win it," Pahulu said.
