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Sports

Running in Reverse

UH looks to keep up 'mad dog' defense, balanced offensive attack

by MARK SUAREZ
THE DAILY COUGAR

If the walls at Robertson Stadium could talk, they would whisper tales of Houston's 4-1 home start and how the Cougars have yet to fall to a conference opponent on John O'Quinn field in 2006.

Houston (5-3, 3-1 Conference USA) boasts a 2-0 home record over C-USA opponents this season, and will look to continue its winning ways against conference foe Central Florida (2-5, 1-2 C-USA) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Robertson Stadium. 

"They do have a talented team. They have everyone back from last year except for about three or four players," UH head coach Art Briles said. "I think it just shows the parity in college football; just how close the line is from winning and the other side."

The parity Briles is referring to is in light of the fact UCF reached the C-USA championship game in 2005 after suffering through a 0-11 campaign the previous year. 

Houston will look to avenge last season's 31-29 loss to Central Florida at the Citrus Bowl in a game in which the Cougars were out-rushed 212 to 138 yards. 

The Cougar offense proved last week that it's not a one trick pony by rushing for 204 yards on 42 carries in its 34-17 win over Texas-El Paso, which complimented its efficient short yardage-passing game. 

For junior wide receiver Jeron Harvey, learning from past mistakes as well as capitalizing on the team's recent surge will be key to unlocking its first-ever victory against Central Florida. 

"We're going to look at film and see what positives we did against them last year and try to exploit that in different ways," Harvey said. "Then we're just going to match our intensity from last week and come even harder so we can win this game." 

The Houston defense is coming off an outing in which it stymied C-USA's second-ranked team in total offense by holding the Miners to zero second-half points.

This week the Cougars will line up against a run-oriented offense. Led by preseason All-Conference USA First Team sophomore tailback Kevin Smith and senior receiver Mike Walker, who leads the team with 54 receptions, Houston will have another chance to test its mettle on defense. 

"We go up against good backs and good receivers every week, so it's just another week we've got to prepare to make tackles on defense, that's the main thing," senior safety Will Gulley said. "Kevin Smith runs hard. He's real shifty and he runs through arm tackles, so we just got to run through him." 

Sophomore kicker Ben Bell was named C-USA Special Teams Player of Week after booting in two field goals against UTEP last week. Bell is putting to rest talk that Houston lacks quality special teams play, and said the key to the kicking game this week will be "to not get complacent." 

"I need to go out there and work hard this week. The week before I missed a field goal and last week that made me work on my stuff a lot," Bell said. "There's no doubt in my mind that is what made me make those field goals, so I'm going to work just as hard this week." 

The Cougars have been to two bowl games in the past three years under Briles' leadership. For junior offensive linemen Dustin Dickinson, the game will have some big implications as a win Saturday would help solidify the team's quest to fatten that statistic even more.

"If we win this, it puts us at six wins, which makes us bowl eligible," Dickinson said. "Also, it's a conference game, so once again that's another huge factor, especially since we're trying to compete for the conference championship title." 
 

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