BOULDER, CO – The past 10 days or so have been intriguing for the Houston linebacking corps. In the Cincinnati game, Jaden Yates returned to the lineup and played almost every snap. Sione Fotu’s wife gave birth last week and, naturally, Fotu was in and out of practice for much of the week and was limited in the Cincinnati game. He played just 10 snaps but had a QB hurry.
Carmycah Glass left the UC game early in the first half and was listed as out for the Colorado game on Tuesday’s injury report. Christian Brathwaite played well in his 50 snaps against the Bearcats and will likely play significant minutes tonight.
With Yates just coming back, Fotu in and out, and Glass injured, the defense overcame significant hurdles to limit Cincinnati to just 24 points.
Earlier this week, I asked defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong what he wants to improve on in the final three weeks of the season. We also discussed the defense’s performance in first halves and second halves:
In Monday’s press conference, Willie Fritz said the defense’s “green dot” in-helmet communications switched from the defensive backs to the linebackers before the season. The green dot indicates that the player has an in-helmet radio receiver for coach-to-player communication. Only one player on the field may wear a green dot helmet at any given time.
Backstory:
The NCAA approved in-helmet communications for the 2024 season, but UH Football did not have the technology until midway through Fall camp. Houston fired AD Chris Pezman in June of that year and hired Eddie Nuñez around the time that the technology was introduced to the team.
2024 was defensive coordinator Shiel Wood’s first (and only) season at UH, and he decided to put the green dot with the inside linebackers. Shiel coached ILBs alongside his DC duties. But trying to call the plays, signal them, and communicate with the green dot proved to be too much. He passed on the in-helmet comms to safeties coach Joshua Christian-Young, who naturally moved the green dot to the safeties room (primarily Kentrell Webb). That system worked well for the 2024 defense.
In his first season as Houston’s defensive coordinator, Austin Armstrong kept the ‘green dot’ with the safeties. So I asked him why he moved it to the linebackers, where most programs run green-dot communication.
“When I got here, the whole staff was here, we had a good MOJO, and I didn’t want to mess it up,” Armstrong said. “So I let them do it.”
When Christian-Young took the job at Kentucky last December, Armstrong moved the comms back to the linebackers’ room. In 2024, that was the setup he had at Florida.
Postgame live from Boulder:
