After seeing the reaction during our Cougar After Thoughts Show (CATS!) OU postgame stream, reading a few forums, and seeing comments on social media, it seems people are surprised that the UH offense isn’t very good.
Everyone is looking for a scapegoat to lay the blame on: Donovan Smith sucks, Kevin Barbay sucks, Willie should have never been hired. In the rush to find a fall guy for a terrible offense and an 0-2 start, UH fans can’t see the forest for the trees.
A bad UH offense is not new, and it’s not because of Willie Fritz, Kevin Barbay, Donovan Smith, or anyone else not named Dana Holgorsen.
In 2023, which was year five of the Dana era, UH opened the season by scoring two touchdowns against UTSA. The following week, they scored one touchdown against Rice in the first three quarters. There was no offensive touchdown against TCU. UH did not score in the second half at Texas Tech, and after the ‘moral victory’ against Texas, Dana and Co. scored 0 against Kansas State, two offensive touchdowns against Baylor in regulation, two against Cincinatti and one against UCF to seal Dana’s fate.
In their last five games of the year, Dana’s offense scored 8 touchdowns in regulation. The offense led by an alleged offensive genius in year 5 was a complete shitshow. That alone would lead most to expect the offense to struggle this year.
But the burning question still unanswered is why. Why did Dana struggle, and why is Willie? The biggest reason why is the revolving door of the offensive line. Before this season, only one current offensive lineman (Tank Jenkins) had played over 80 snaps at UH. At the same time, these OL have transferred in the last 3 years:
* Tyler Johnson
* Reuben Unije
* Jaylen Garth
* Tevin Shaw
* Karson Jones
* Cam’Ron Johnson
* Lance Robinson
* Ugonna Nnanna
* Trevonte Sylvester
* Derek Bowman
* Carson Walker
* Josh Adkins
* Chase Todd
* Almarion Crim
* James Faminu
* Max Banes
* Billy Thursland
* Jordan Boatman
A total of 18 offensive linemen transferred out in three years. The common reaction to most of these guys leaving was that they just weren’t good enough. I don’t disagree with a lot of them, but that points to poor evaluation, recruiting, and development.
Four of those guys were regular starters, combining for 58 starts at UH. In addition, Patrick Paul and Jack Freeman (both Major Applewhite recruits) graduated, meaning UH has four new starters on an offensive line with zero depth to back fill those jobs. Including all starters, UH lost 64% of offensive starts (84 of 132) from 2023 via graduation or transfer.
Four games into the Dana Holgorsen regime, this program started a death spiral with the #HTownShutdown in 2019. Willie Fritz and his staff are having to sift through the ashes to salvage anything possible to build something new. The offensive line needs to be built from the ground up, which will take time.