A UH Football stat to start the countdown to kickoff week, Cougar soccer plays UH’s first Big 12 game, and looking at and comparing facilities at Colorado and UH.
the daily #18 | Archives
10 days til Dana’s first press conference. So let’s do a stat-a-day about UH Football.
Point One. Today’s is a fantastic one from UH Communications via the new football media guide: The Cougars return .1% of their passing yards from a year ago. .1%!
I believe that’s the fewest since 2003 when Kevin Kolb took over the QB job in Art Briles’ first season. In 2003, UH returned 0% of passing yards from the previous year. All three players that completed a pass in 2002 – Barrick Nealy, Nick Eddy, and Torrence Botts – left the program before the 2003 season.
It worked out: in Dana Dimel’s final year, UH threw for 2670 yards, 19 TDs, and 22 INTs. In 2003, with a true freshman running a revolutionary ‘multiple’ offense, Kolb threw for 3131 yards, 25 TDs, and 6 INTs. And a 7-6 record mean UH’s first bowl appearance in seven years.
Scoreless In Seattle. UH’s first Big 12 event came and went, some UH fans took note, and…nothing happened.
It was a 0-0 tie. UH flew to Seattle, played (new Big 10 member) Washington, and like a Friday night at the mall for 17-year-old me, there was no scoring.
I’m not a soccer guy, and I have no clue if soccer people like tie games, but it seems less than ideal. And a scoreless tie? Egads. There has to be a better way, right?
But, the upside, and it’s a good upside, is that UH is still an undefeated member of the Big 12 Conference.
UH’s home opener is Sunday at 1 p.m. and will be streamed live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
Big 12 Roadshow. I spent Thursday in Boulder and toured several University of Colorado athletics facilities. Beyond a beautiful campus, they have fantastic training facilities for athletes. Their indoor practice facility is connected to the weight room, and football players go straight from their locker room into the IPF. Ideal. Efficient.
When UH opens the new football operations building, It will be integrated with the existing TDECU Stadium and indoor practice facility, similar to what Colorado has. A new weight room will be in the ops building, and potentially a new locker room (it was discussed in articles earlier this year but not in more recent ones). Worst case, players dress in their TDECU locker room and connect to the IPF through the ops building.
Currently, players dress in the Alumni Athletics Facility for practice, go out the back door, under the stands of the Carl Lewis International Complex, around Garrison Gym, past the outdoor practice fields, across Holman Street, and into the IPF.
Folsom Field is beautiful but definitely better lit up at night than on an August afternoon.
I looked for gold chains and a cowboy hat everywhere but never found Coach Prime.
The basketball facility is named UC Events Center, and I walked past it twice before realizing I found it. Even their website shows this as the building.
It has an intimate feel like Fertitta Center (but is older and larger, at 11,000+ seats). Like Fertitta, you enter the upper concourse, and all seats go down towards the floor.
Even their student rec center is amazing, although shooting into this backdrop might be worse than the blue curtain of death at the old Autry Court. Players complained about figuring out shooting depth with the blue curtain – this has to be worse, right?
Way more beautiful view, though.
Everywhere you turn in the athletics district, there’s a practice field. They’re seemingly all lined for football, and I counted at least six fields. Apparently, they play lacrosse on one, soccer on another, track and field on another. Just wish they had a baseball team.
Click below for all of our preseason football coverage
