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Sports

Too legit to quit

Houston runs through and around UCF in win to gain bowl eligibilty

by MARK SUAREZ
THE DAILY COUGAR

Going down to the wire has been somewhat of a forte for the Cougars in their quest for bowl eligibility in recent years.

Houston (6-3, 4-1 C-USA), in need of a win Saturday to solidify its bowl status sooner than later, stepped up and delivered a 51-31 win over C-USA opponent Central Florida (2-6, 1-3) at Robertson Stadium in a win senior quarterback Kevin Kolb could only describe as "big time for us." 

"Gaining bowl eligibility, especially this early in the season," Kolb said. "It was not one of our main goals, but we're glad to get that monkey off our back. Now that it's out of the way, we'll concentrate on Tulsa and try to get this conference championship sewn up."

On defense, the Cougars had their hands full trying to contain UCF sophomore tailback Kevin Smith. 

The Golden Knights consistently ran the ball up the middle and to the left side of the line for big gains behind a stout offensive line. With the defensive line unable to corral Smith on initial contact, senior safety Will Gulley and sophomore safety Ernest Miller led the Cougar defense with a combined 26 tackles from the secondary. 

Central Florida rallied to take a 21-17 halftime behind 6.2 yards per carry out of the backfield and a passing attack that racked up 15 yards per completion. 

In all, the UH defense surrendered 318 total yards in the first half but forced three turnovers, including two second quarter interceptions, by freshman Brandon Brinkley and Gulley.

The key defensive stop occurred in the fourth quarter after Houston grabbed a 38-31 lead on an 8-yard flag route by senior Vincent Marshall in the right end zone. Central Florida threw three straight incomplete passes with 11:45 remaining on the ensuing drive. It was there that UH snatched the game's momentum and shut out the Golden Knights, who had to revert to catch-up mode the rest of the game. 

"You go back to that (fourth) quarter when we throw the ball three times in a row, I'm raising hell about that cause its 38-31 and we need to be running the ball eating the clock up," UCF head coach George O'Leary said. "I don't know what we were thinking about when we threw it three times in a row." 

Smith rushed for 163 yards on 31 carries and three touchdowns but only had two carries in the fourth for 14 yards. 

Senior cornerback Willie Gaston had his hands full on the edge running up to stop Smith and said he wasn't complaining when UCF went to the pass late. 

"Kevin Smith is a big back; he's a bruiser," Gaston said. "They wanted to play smash-mouth football and they did. They helped us out by going to the pass."

The Cougar offense had its own force in the backfield in the forms of junior Anthony "Quick" Alridge who rushed for 131 yards on nine carries while senior Jackie Battle had 70 yards on 14 attempts to accompany his three touchdowns. 

Houston had the running game working early and took advantage by taking shots down field on play action out of the spread. Kolb, who completed 22 of 34 passes for 305 yards and three touchdowns, connected with senior wide out Biren Ealy on a 52-yard touchdown slant pattern out of the slot down the right sideline to give Houston a 10-0 lead.

The Cougars broke a wide receiver screen for a 62-yard score when Kolb hit senior halfback Roshawn Pope who was lined up in the slot on the left side with junior Jeron Harvey springing him on a block down the sideline. The score gave Houston a 31-24 lead midway through the third quarter. 

With the running game thriving on the one-two punch of the speed of Alridge and the power running of Battle the Cougars closed out the game by controlling the clock.

UH head coach Art Briles said the momentum swing after the second quarter was key.

"We went through a little bit of a bump there in the first half, we created it," Briles said. "They did a lot of stuff on their offense that we created but we didn't let it get us down. We knew we had 30 minutes in the second half and if we came out and scored early the momentum would swing."

For O'Leary, being able to recognize the Cougar schemes was one thing, but being able to contain them was another.

"The worst is when you lose and you don't know why you lost," O'Leary said. "They know why they lost.

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