Dana Holgorsen said UH’s lack of discipline was unacceptable after the Cougars’ double overtime loss to Texas Tech at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock on Saturday afternoon. | Courtesy of UH athletics
LUBBOCK — Dana Holgorsen needed just one word to sum up UH’s double overtime loss to Texas Tech — stupid.
“Just a whole lot of stupid stuff,” Holgorsen said after the game. “Stupid, stupid, stupid, undisciplined stuff. I don’t feel like we deserved to win.”
It’s hard enough to win a game in college football. Winning becomes almost impossible when a team not only has to play against the opponent but itself as well.
Six penalties pushed the Cougars back 71 yards in the first quarter alone, including a roughing the punter which nullified a Nathaniel Dell punt return touchdown.
“The roughing the punter in the end zone makes me sick,” Holgorsen said. ”It’s the second time Tank’s took one back to the house for nothing. Makes me sick.”
Two missed tackles led to Texas Tech’s first touchdown. Safety Hassan Hypolite and nickleback Jayce Rogers collided trying to bring down Texas Tech receiver Myles Price opened up an empty street for the Price to stroll down for the Red Raiders second touchdown of the game.
Despite shooting themselves in the foot time and time again, the Cougars still found themselves in a prime position to come out of Lubbock with a win thanks to the defense picking off Red Raiders quarterback Donovan Smith three times and sacking him another five times.
But then, history repeated itself
After kicking a go-ahead field goal with 23 seconds left in the season opener against UTSA a week ago, UH allowed the Roadrunners’ offense to drive down the field with no timeouts and kick a field goal to send the game into overtime.
The same happened in Lubbock.
After senior kicker Bubba Baxa drilled a 35-yard field goal to put UH up 20-17 with just 37 seconds remaining in regulation, the Cougars defense once again failed to seal the deal, surrendering 46 yards in just 34 seconds to set up the game-tying field goal.
This left Holgorsen fuming after the game.
“Puke,” Holgorsen said. “It’s just unacceptable. How can you have that happen last week and then go out there and you do it again? I don’t know man. Whatever we’re doing, we’ll look at it and we’ll do something different. It’s not winning football”
As if Texas Tech hadn’t given UH enough opportunities to win the game, the Cougars were given another golden one in the first overtime.
Up seven after scoring to begin overtime, UH had the Texas Tech offense in a fourth-and-20 situation, needing one final stop to win the game.
That stop never happened as the Red Raiders picked up 21 yards to stay alive. The rest is history as Texas Tech found the end zone a few plays later followed by a walk-off 9-yard Smith rushing touchdown to hand the Cougars their fifth straight defeat at the hands of the Red Raiders and 10th loss in the last 11 matchups.
“If we would have won this game, we would have been lucky to get out of here with a win,” Holgorsen said. ”Just too much stupid crap.”
