MANHATTAN, Kan. – At the halfway point of the 2026 season, the Houston Cougars are in prime position: 5-1 (2-1 in the Big 12), with both the offense and defense improving and the program preparing for its biggest home game in a decade.
News, notes, and comments from Manhattan and the season as a whole.
I try to be on the field two hours before kickoff, when the team arrives and players come out. Most guys walk around the field, while some throw balls or stretch. It’s the final unstructured moments until the team gets on the plane.
These guys are always focused on the road, but Saturday I noticed a more comfortable group. After the game, I learned their confidence came from their belief in the plan they had for Kansas State. This team then came out and executed perfectly, playing complementary football and stealing the soul out of the K-State faithful.
Here was the scene at 3:18, as K-State had just kicked a field goal to get it to 7-3. The students were loud:
And here was the scene at 4:03, just 45 minutes later, after UH made it 21-3. The students were gone:
Patrick Overmyer obviously gets the flowers, but the offensive line are the guys that deserve a steakhouse night. Especially the interior of the line.
According to PFF, in the last three games, LG Shadre Hurst and center Anthony Boswell have combined to give up 0 pressures in 190 combined snaps. Add in McKenzie Agnello (2/96 on pressures), the middle of your line has gone 284 for 286 on not allowing pressures – a 99.3% success rate. That’s incredible.
And they have been just as good on the ground, opening holes for Thunder (Makhi Hughes) and Lightning (Re’Shaun Sanford) all season. Cougar rushers are averaging 198.6 against FBS opponents.
We’ve called him Patrick Overmiddle since we saw his talent in spring ball. But after his four-TD performance, maybe he’s OverHere, OverThere, and notably, OverTheGoalLine.
Overmyer is as humble a guy as you’ll meet, praising his coaches and teammates immediately after he entered the postgame interview room Saturday. You’d never know he tied an NCAA record for receiving touchdowns by a tight end.
Put another way, no tight end in the sport’s 158-year history has caught more TDs in a game than Over3TDs did. And he did it in about 38.5 minutes of game time.
That’s pretty cool.
At 5-1, there’s a lot of spots to praise this team. So where can you ding them? Penalties.
For the offense, penalties are touchdown killers: In the 40 drives this season that UH has not had an offensive penalty, they’ve scored TDs in 62.5% of them (25/40). But with a penalty on the drive? TDs fall to 26.3% (5/19).
Houston scores 4.58 points per drive without a penalty. With one? It drops almost 50%, to 2.38. When the Coogs beat the Coogs, it costs them dearly.
Coaches and players call them business trips. But since the start of the 2025 season, Houston is 8-1 on the road. They’ve won games in all four time zones, with Central Time Zone kickoffs at 11 a.m., 2:30 p.m., 3, 6, 7, and 9:30.
How do you win on the road? Limiting turnovers. Houston has 7 total turnovers in those 8 wins (and four of those were at UCF when Conner’s arm just wasn’t right). UH has not turned it over in either road win this year (and only once at Tech).
The Coogs have won the turnover battle in all three road games this year and have been +1 in five of the last six road games (-2 at UCF).
Saturday’s Cougar After Thoughts Show (CATS!):
