College Football Predictions – Houston Cougars 2019 College Football Preview
2018 Recap
Record – 8-5
ATS – 6-7
The Cougars started out on SUPAH HOT FIRE winning seven of their first eight games and scoring 40+ points on each occasion. Things got UGLY from that point forward as they lost three of their final four regular season games before getting taken behind the WOODSHED by Army in the Armed Forces Bowl (L 70-14). The Black Knights just rushed for another 77- yard TD as we were typing this sentence.
The good news? Houston has been winning games on a consistent basis for quite some time and haven’t had a losing season since 2012. They made a great hire at HC as Dana Holgorsen comes over from West Virginia. Should be fun times ahead!
2019 MEGALOCKS Opening Power Rating
West Division – #2
American Athletic Conference – #4
Houston Cougars 2019 Outlook
OFFENSE
WHOA NELLIE.
The Cougars moved like a TREMENDOUS MACHINE last year (43.9 PPG, #1 AAC) and only slowed down once their amazing QB D’Eriq King was lost for the year in the penultimate game of the regular season. King racked up an amazing 36 TD passes and 14 rushing scores whilst completing 63.5% of his passes for almost 3,000 yards. King should have a lot of fun this year as there are tons of weapons at his disposal. Houston brings back their top-two rushers from a season ago including Patrick Carr (893, 5.7, 5 TD) and add grad transfer Kyle Porter into the mix via Texas. The running game should be excellent once you figure the mobility of QB King into equation. You wanna talk about targets in the THROW GAME? Their WR unit returns the top-three men from last year’s squad who combined for over 2,200 yards and 24 (!) TDs in 2018. The offensive line brings back three starters (including C and LT) and add a pair of Power-Five grad transfers to the depth chart.
Expect these guys to light up the scoreboard once again in 2019.
DEFENSE
TOUCHDOWN ARMY! Stop us if you have heard that before. Yes, they had a bad case of the injury bug, but they allowed a gross 45,59,52 and 70 points in four of their final five games. They allowed 37.2 PPG which was the most they had given up since the turn of the century.
The Cougars made another solid hire in DC Joe Cauthen who did some fine work at Arkansas St but he has a tall task ahead of him. The Cougars were a HOT MESS last season and only return four starters. Oh, and they also lose all-Universe DT Ed Oliver to the NFL (Bills). We are concerned about the DL and LB groups that don’t have many players with starting experience and lose the top-two tacklers from last year’s stop unit (LBs Austin Robinson, Roman Brown; combined for 239 tackles LY). The secondary did decent work in 2018 (19-14 TD to INT, 59.4%) but must introduce a new pair of starting CBs.
The Cougars will do better than allowing 37 PPG but still look like one of the weaker defenses in the AAC.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Everyone of note returns for duty. PK Dalton Witherspoon hit 7/9 three-pointers LY and P Dane Roy is rock solid. Both primary return men are back and they were both decent in 2018.
Schedule Analysis
Overall – It looks challenging to us. They only have one home game in the first five weeks and that is against something called Prairie View A&M. Five of their first six games are battles with Oklahoma, Washington St, Tulane, North Texas and Cincinnati. Yikes. They also draw UCF from the AAC East.
Potential ATS Trouble Spot – at North Texas (September 28)
This will be their 4th non-home game in five weeks to start the year and it comes off an AAC battle with division rival Tulane. North Texas is one of the best teams in C-USA and will not be an easy out.
Season Win Total
Over 7.5 -110
Under 7.5 -110
MEGALOCKS says:
Lean to the ‘under’ as we approach press time. We don’t see too many free squares on their dance card and several games could go either way.
MEGAmazing Tidbit
HC Dana Holgorsen coached under Mike Leach at Texas Tech for EIGHT years. Time flies.
MEGALOCKS ATS Outlook: Negative
The Cougars are going to be LIGHTS OUT on offense, but will they be able to stop anyone? And will QB D’Eriq King continue his amazing level of play and stay healthy for the entire season? We certainly hope so, because not only is he one of the most exciting players in college football, we shudder to think what they would be without him under center.
Houston will probably be a popular team with DEGENERATE NATION as it’s FUN to bet on teams that score lots of points and have a high-profile head coach. We’ll take a mildly-negative overall ATS stance to start things off until we see what the defense has to offer.
Want more Houston Cougars football ?
WEBSITE
http://www.uhcougars.com/sports/m-footbl/hou-m-footbl-body.html
FORUM
http://www.coogfans.com/c/football
https://houston.forums.rivals.com/forums/cullen-boulevard.10/
NEWS
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/teams/houston-cougars
http://www.espn.com/college-football/team/_/id/248/houston-cougars
http://bleacherreport.com/houston-cougars-football
http://www.chron.com/sports/cougars/
TWITTER
Hashtag – #HTownTakeover
Accounts to follow
https://twitter.com/UHCougarFB
https://twitter.com/Joseph_Duarte