Running back Michael Hayes, top, celebrates his first career touchdown in Saturday's season opener against Texas State. At halftime, the team had a 47-point advantage over the Bobcats. | Kendra Berglund/The Daily Cougar
The Cougars’ 40-point walloping over Texas State came as little surprise to fans, but few were expecting a sellout and record crowd.
32,119 people managed to squeeze into Robertson Stadium, breaking the record of 31,818 set during last season’s game versus Texas Tech.
Head coach Kevin Sumlin said he was grateful for the overwhelming support shown by Cougar Nation.
“I want to thank our fans,” Sumlin said. “You don’t know what kind of atmosphere that created for our players.”
The fan’s presence did not go unnoticed by quarterback Case Keenum either.
“The students were awesome, they were there two hours early,” Keenum said. “We had a huge showing. It’s great to see the city of Houston behind us. It means so much. I really can’t put it into words.”
The Cougars struck first when running back Michael Hayes caught a pass from Keenum out of the backfield and took it to the end zone to go up 7-0. For Hayes, it was his first play as a Cougar.
“Welcome to Cougar football. That’s one way to start,” Keenum said.
Texas State would pull within six in the first quarter to make it 13-7.
The Cougars responded quickly when Patrick Edwards scored on a 63-yard reception to make it 20-7.
By the half the Cougars had raced to a 54-7 advantage. Texas State didn’t score again until the third quarter.
With the starters resting in the second half, it provided an opportunity for less experienced players to get time on the field.
“As our program gets stronger, we need to be able to develop our younger players,” Sumlin said. “We really gave them a chance in the second half to play in our defensive and offensive schemes. Some guys are ready, some guys aren’t.”
Keenum completed 17 passes on 22 attempts with five touchdown tosses. While pleased with the victory, he said there were lessons to learn from the win.
“I thought it was a good game for us,” Keenum said. “We saw a lot of things that we need to work on, and we saw some things we did well. It’s a learning experience; I think we’re going to get a lot better after watching the film.”
What an awesome site to see the stands filled to capacity. I want to also acknowledge the good rep by the TST fans. A good tuner for the utep game this friday night and compeition starts in conference play. We need to show we want better facilites and higher acknowledgement for the teams abilities and accomplishments by being there, in mass at every game, either at home or away.
Goo COOGS