First Look At The 2019 Football Schedule

The 2019 football schedule was released on Thursday. Here’s a first look at the schedule and our initial thoughts.
 

The 2019 Football Schedule

8/31 – (Away)
9/7 –
9/13 – (Friday/NRG Stadium)
9/19 – (Thursday/Away)
9/28 – (Away)
10/12 –
10/19 – (Away)
10/24 – (Thursday)
11/2 – (Away)
11/16 –
11/23 – (Away)
11/30 –
12/7 – (TBD)
 

Initial Thoughts

• The Coogs do not have back-to-back home games all season.
   
• That’s five different stadiums in the first 5 weeks including both P5 games on the schedule. The rough part is 3 games in 13 days to start – including two top-10 teams from last year.
   
• There are two short-weeks in the first month: 6 days for Wazzu and 6 days for Tulane.
   
• One thing to watch: the injury situation coming out of the Wazzu game.
   
• Going to New Orleans on that short week could be the mother of all letdown games.
   
• The first off week of the year is after the UNT game. The Coogs will play 5 games before then. I’m very interested to see how this team responds after the off-week with a very good Cincinnati team.
   
• UH will play their first home game vs. an FBS team on October 12 vs the Bearcats. This is the result of moving the Wazzu game to NRG Stadium.
   
• SMU on a Thursday night is a joke. With only 5 games at TDECU, this hurts a potential good home crowd. More importantly, the turn-around from the furthest road game in the conference to a Thursday is goofy. The conference didn’t do us any favors.
   
• SMU at home is (once again) a revenge game. Dana will definitely be in their ear about how the 2018 team laid down in Highland Park. And I bet he’ll have D’Eriq King ready to play.
   
• Over the last 5 years, UH has played 17 regular-season games on days other than Saturday. We add 3 more with Wazzu, Tulane, and SMU.
   
• One bright spot: all November games are on Saturday. Players need that consistent rest as the season winds down.
   
• I don’t love the timing of the trip to UCF but it will come with an extra couple days rest.
   
• The Coogs get their second off-week before Memphis comes to town. Memphis will have that week off, too. UH hasn’t beaten the Tigers since November 2015.
   
• Road trips to Tulane and Tulsa during Major’s tenure resulted in losses in each. One of the ways I expect Dana to improve this program is to not let that crap happen again.
   
• 2019 will be the first time since 2012 that the Cougars haven’t played on Black Friday. Memphis/Cincinnati take over our spot.
   
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