It’s opening week! UH unveils “This Is UH,” a sleek new commercial to air during games this season. And UH’s recent helmet history is…something.
the daily #27 | Archives
Game Week. Cougar Football starts their normal game-week prep today. They have been looking at UTSA film for a few days and have been working on the game plan, but it gets real today. Saturday’s game is the first of 10 games in Texas this season.
Dana Holgorsen will begin his 2023 press conferences from the Jim Nantz Media Center inside Fertitta Center tomorrow and will continue at 11 a.m. every Monday when UH has a game. On Tuesdays, an assistant coach and a few players will be available in the Carl Lewis Auditorium inside the Athletics/Alumni Center. This week, it will be Doug Belk, Donovan Smith, Patrick Paul, Joseph Manjack IV, and David Ugwoegbu. Dana’s radio show will be at Little Woodrow’s EaDo on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m.
Curious to see what changes now that UH is in the Big 12. How many media members show up (and keep showing up every week)? It will be interesting to keep up with.
New Commercial. UH did a lowkey release of its 2023-24 TV commercial on Saturday. Watch:
The school says the debut season in the Big 12 is “not just about making a great first impression – it’s about leaving an indelible mark.” It’s a fast-paced 30 seconds, telling UH’s story in ways I didn’t even know about (a fentanyl vaccine? That would be huge). The Big 12 logo first appears at the seven-second mark and is next to the UH logo on the end screen.
It’s the sort of commercial that would make you stop and watch. Maybe the best they’ve done since the Jim Nantz-narrated What is power? spot that debuted six years ago.
Helmet Watch. Did you know that UH has had at least 50 different helmet styles in its 77-year football history? I admit that I did not.
Houston @UHCougarFB had only worn variations of the UH logo since 1962 until introducing a Cougar head logo in 2012. https://t.co/E3BpVEov8Y
4/14🧵 pic.twitter.com/2IFRAVHtsm— Blaise D'Sylva (@wtfcoach) August 24, 2023
I accept that this Twitter X post fully accounts for UH’s helmet history. If so…From 1962 until 1999, UH had six helmet variations. Always red and always the white interlocking ‘skinny’ UH. It was the UH brand. But then Adidas came in and made the logo chubby for the 1999 season, and away we went.
Here’s the kicker: the circled helmet below is from Halloween night 2013, a Thursday night game against USF at Reliant Stadium (the year TDECU was being built):
Since that game, less than ten years ago, UH has had 27 different helmets. It’s an era where many schools add new helmets for various reasons (cool helmet-reveal social media posts seemingly the most obvious). I presume we will see several new iterations of the UH helmet this year.
Some of those in the last ten years have been great, while some, like that Halloween helmet, have been horrible. If the skinny version isn’t an option, and it currently is not, besides throwback games, then I’m a fan of the UH logo on a red or white helmet only.
I know, I know. It’s time to chase some kids off my lawn.
