After two crucial road wins at Alabama-Birmingham and Texas-El Paso, the Cougars have put together a three-game winning streak coming into Sunday’s game against Southern Methodist that will kick-off 7 p.m. at Robertson Stadium on ESPN.
This will be the Cougars’ fourth televised game this season but their first ESPN game since last season’s Liberty Bowl loss (44-36) to South Carolina on Dec. 29.
The Cougars (5-3, 4-1 C-USA) are coming off a big victory against UTEP, allowing breathing room from the rest of C-USA West.
"Last Saturday’s win was as good a win as we’ve had around here in a long time, tough win and tough environment in the fashion that we did it," head coach Art Briles said at a press conference. "I was really, really proud of our players, their determination, their attitude and their belief. It re-emphasized what they’ve been doing for a long time, so it was a very, very gratifying effort. A good one to come out on top on."
The last regular season game broadcasted by ESPN was against Miami on Sept. 30, 2006 on ESPN2. Sunday’s game could be a good chance to showcase some of the Houston seniors, such as safety Rocky Schwartz.
"It’s exposure for the seniors, but it’s also exposure for the University in general," Schwartz said. "It’s always good to be on a televised game that gets us exposed as a team and university, our stadium, everything."
Houston will welcome an SMU (1-7, 0-4 C-USA) team that has lost six games in a row and recently fired head coach Phil Bennett on Monday. Bennett will finish out the season with the Mustangs.
"It could back-fire off them…or it could mean that they’re playing for themselves. They could come out like a ball of fire, you never know," Schwartz said.
One of the concerns for the Cougars against SMU is quarterback Justin Willis, who leads the team in passing (1,941 yards with 14 touchdowns) and rushing (427 yards on 115 carries).
"It’s always difficult to face a scrambling quarterback," Schwartz said. "He’s got moves like a wide receiver and a running back.
"It’s always difficult when someone’s running outside the pocket because the play takes longer and everyone gets tired. The defensive backs have to stay on their coverage longer, and when he’s scrambling, that’s when openings occur…it really demoralizes the defense."
Senior running back Anthony Alridge had another fantastic performance against the Miners on Saturday and eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark after eight games.
"I give a lot of credit to my teammates. They helped me a lot this year, especially the offensive line," Alridge said.
The Cougars have been squeaky-clean in terms of turnovers in the last two games, while SMU has had seven in their last three contests. Alridge knows that it has been one of the biggest differences in their offense but said they still have work to do.
"We really haven’t done anything different, we just really matured as a team," Alridge said. "We’ve been growing with more confidence within ourselves and doing what we have to do to win games, and that’s to not turnover the ball and cut down on some of the penalties we’re getting."
Houston seemed to have solved the quarterback competition at UTEP with a great performance by redshirt freshman Case Keenum, who went 13-of-20 for 116 yards a touchdown and rushed for 72 yards on 10 carries for two touchdowns. But Briles isn’t concerned with who starts just as long as the Cougars win.
"Honestly, like I’ve said the past five weeks, it’s a non-issue. We have a bunch of guys on this football team that are battling hard to help us win a football game," Briles said at a press conference. "That’s all we’re concerned with. Who starts, who doesn’t start, makes no difference. How they help us win makes a difference."
