For the University of Houston Cougar football squad, 2003 was a good year. It was the first time since 1999 and only the third time in thirteen seasons that the Coogs posted a winning record. The season ended with the Coogs’ first bowl appearance since 1996, a wild triple-overtime shootout in Hawaii (that unfortunately ended in a nasty postgame brawl). When one considers how well the team did under first-year coach Art Briles and how young the 2003 team was, there’s legitimate reason for optimism for 2004 and beyond.

It all started with a 48-14 thumping of Rice at Robertson Stadium; the Owls simply could not physically match up with the Coogs and had no answer for Art Briles’s offense, which racked up a total of 440 yards. True freshman Kevin Kolb, who was named starter literally minutes before kickoff, put on an amazing performance with 246 yards passing and two touchdowns; he rushed for two more. The oftentimes potent Rice option, which had played its part in victories over the Cougars four out of the previous seven seasons, was largely ineffective and suffered a tremendous loss when Owls QB Kyle Herm was knocked out of the game. It was a crucial victory over the crosstown rival and it started the Briles era with a win.

However, the new coach’s perfect winning record was short-lived. The following week the Cougars made the trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan and got pummeled by the seventh-ranked Wolverines, 50-3. This time it was the Coogs who were physically outmanned; the UH defense gave up 536 yards of total offense, which was unfortunately a sign of things to come. The Cougar offense managed only eight first downs the entire game; meanwhile, Wolverines running back Chris Perry rushed for 181 yards and two scores. The loss showed that the Cougars still had a long way to go before they could compete with the nation’s elite.

One week later, the Cougars made the short trip down I-10 to Lafayette to play the Ragin’ Cajuns of ULL. The game was played under sloppy conditions - a driving rainstorm began right before kickoff and play actually had to be suspended between the first and second quarters because of lightning - and the Coogs themselves looked very sloppy at times, turning the ball over five times and committing 18 penalties for 144 yards. However, in spite of all the sloppiness, the Cougars were able to pull off a 21-14 win on the road.

The Coogs returned to Robertson Stadium the following Saturday to host Jackie Sherrill and the Bulldogs of Mississippi State – the first time an SEC team has come to Houston since 1979. Kevin Kolb hit Brandon Middleton with a 74-yard touchdown pass on the first play from scrimmage, and the Coogs built up a 28-6 lead at halftime. Mississippi State tried to close the gap in the 2nd half, but the Cougars held on to win 42-35. Kevin Kolb would end the day completing 20 of 29 passes for 321 yards and four touchdowns. Jackie Sherrill, who was Houston’s hated nemesis when he coached Texas A&M in the 1980s, was fired shortly afterward. With the out-of-conference slate complete, the Cougars were now 3-1.

Houston’s next game was a rare Tuesday night appearance on ESPN. The Coogs traveled to Greenville, North Carolina to begin C-USA play against the East Carolina Pirates. Thanks in part to a 263-yard passing performance from Kevin Kolb and a UH defense that intercepted ECU three times, the Coogs were able to leave Greenville with a 27-13 win and avenge the previous season’s season's 54-48 triple-overtime loss to the Pirates.

The Cougars, after enjoying a Saturday off, made another trip to Louisiana, this time to Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park in New Orleans to play the Tulane Green Wave. Behind an offensive performance that would eventually net 256 yards in the air and 283 yards on the ground, the Coogs built a three-touchdown lead at halftime. However, Tulane mounted a furious rally in the second half, and the already-thin Cougar defense sustained a huge blow when defensive end Farouk Adelekan suffered a season-ending injury. What looked to be a blowout win quickly became a nail-biter, and Tulane, with the ball and less than a minute remaining, still had a chance to tie or even win when the UH defense finally came up with a huge sack of Green Wave QB J.P. Losman to end the game and preserve a 45-42 UH victory. Houston was now 5-1, with three of its victories coming on the road. The Coogs were only one game away from bowl eligibility, and next up was a three-game homestand. Things were looking great.

That is, until the Memphis Tigers paid a visit to Robertson Stadium the following week. Perhaps the Cougars, riding a four-game winning streak back to their home stadium, were overconfident and took the Tigers, whom they beat the previous year, too lightly. Perhaps Memphis, on its way to its first winning season since 1994 and its first postseason appearance since 1971, really was a much better team. For whatever reason, the game was perhaps the ugliest and most disappointing of the year; it was not as close as the 45-14 score indicated, as the Cougars didn’t even find the endzone until halfway through the fourth quarter. Houston’s depleted defense was no match for Memphis, which gained a total of 487 yards. The Cougar offense, meanwhile, was utterly stymied. Kevin Kolb did not have a good game; he may have been rattled by a poorly-thrown ball which was intercepted and returned for a touchdown early on.

The good guys had a week off to rest and lick their wounds before hosting 13th-ranked TCU. The ensuing game was a wild track meet, with the Cougars and the Horned Frogs combining for 1,466 yards of total offense. TCU’s scoring defense, which came into the game ranked sixth in the nation, could not stop Kevin Kolb. The freshman quarterback rebounded from the disappointing performance against Memphis with 434 passing yards and four touchdown passes. Unfortunately for the Coogs, the only thing worse than TCU’s defense was Houston’s defense, which gave up a jaw-dropping 782 yards of total offense and allowed the Horned Frogs to reach the endzone eight times. Houston lost the highly entertaining scorefest, 62-56.

The Cougars looked at the following week’s game against Southern Miss as a chance to salvage at least one win over the three-game home stand, but it simply was not to be. The eventual Conference USA champions made quick work of the Coogs, 31-10. Nothing went right for Houston; Kevin Kolb was limited to 158 yards passing with no touchdowns and an interception, and Southern Miss returned a phantom fumble for a touchdown when the typically incompetent C-USA officiating crew failed to whistle a play dead. The Cougars were on a three-game losing streak, and all of a sudden a season that just a month ago looked highly promising was now somewhat in doubt.

Luckily for the Coogs, the following week’s game was against the hapless Black Knights of Army. The Cougars came back from West Point with their sixth win of the season, a 34-14 victory which saw Anthony Evans rush for 140 yards and Kevin Kolb pass for over 300. After letting Army score the first touchdown, the Coogs went on a 34-0 run before the Cadets finally found the endzone again in the fourth quarter. With Army leaving C-USA, the trip was probably Houston’s last to beautiful West Point, New York.

The Cougars were on the road again the subsequent Saturday, and the hapless defense tied a UH record for points allowed in a frustrating 66-45 loss to Louisville. The defense was especially ineffective against the Cardinals’ ground assault, giving up 445 rushing yards. A bright spot of the game was Kevin Kolb’s performance: he passed for 244 yards and had two touchdowns through the air and two more on the ground. Another bright spot for the Coogs was Ricky Wilson’s 100-yard kickoff return. The Coogs were now 6-5 with one game left, a game that would decide whether or not they would go bowling.

Houston had historically not fared well against the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Despite being a newcomer to Division I-A, the Blazers had won all three previous contests against the Cougars, and the Blazers, with a 5-6 record, were by no means out of the bowl hunt themselves; a victory over Houston would have put both teams at 6-6, with the Blazers having a better conference record. Art Briles and his team rose to the challenge, however, and Houston doubled up the Blazers 56-28 in a near-perfect game. Kevin Kolb had 196 yards and two touchdowns through the air and another 60 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. Anthony Evans had 165 rushing yards and three touchdowns. The Coogs had finally gotten the monkey that was UAB off their backs, and they had secured their first winning season since 1999 with a 7-5 record. More importantly, the Cougars were headed to their first bowl since 1996. Although fans and players had to wait through several agonizing days while C-USA bowl arrangements were worked out, the Coogs would soon be looking forward to a trip to Honolulu to play the Hawaii Warriors on Christmas Day.

The Hawaii Bowl turned out to be the offensive spectacle everybody thought it would be: it was an exciting struggle between two evenly-matched teams that went into triple overtime before a winner was decided. The Cougars never gave up even when the everything seemed against them. Hawaii coach June Jones’s dubious decision to run up the score late in the game (when he could have simply run out the clock instead) backfired; Houston got the ball back and, on third down from deep within their side of the field with less than one minute remaining, Kevin Kolb hit Vincent Marshall over the middle for an 81-yard touchdown pass that sent the game into OT. While that play certainly was the highlight of the season, the Coogs finally succumbed in the third overtime and lost 48-54. After the game, a violent brawl broke out between the two teams, with plenty of punches being thrown and helmets being swung.

While the season may have ended on a down note with the bowl loss and ensuing fight, the fact remains that 2003 was a successful season for the Cougars. While it’s true that the Cougars did not beat any teams with winning records, it’s also true that the Cougars didn’t lose to any teams with losing records, either. This type of middle-of-the-road, beat-the-teams-you-should-beat consistency is preferable to the erratic nature of previous teams (such as the 2002 UH football squad, which upset a bowl-bound Louisville team but lost to sub-.500 teams such as UAB and East Carolina), because it indicates exactly where this program is right now and where it needs to go. Under the direction of Art Briles, a solid foundation is being built for the future.

It's ironic that in the spring, I actually predicted a 7-5 record. However, in August I tempered my outlook somewhat to 5-7. With the departures of Nick Eddy and Barrick Nealy, I was very concerned about the quarterback situation. With the top two starters gone, I simply didn't think that the Cougars would have the experience at quarterback necessary to lead the team to a winning season.

Bring wrong never felt so good. The performance of true freshman Kevin Kolb was nothing short of phenomenal. He completed over 61% of his passes for over 3,100 yards. He had 25 touchdown passes and only 6 interceptions. He also rushed for 346 yards and had 7 rushing touchdowns. Kolb, who ended the season with C-USA Freshman of the Year honors, made the QB position a strength. With him at the helm for the next three years, things can only get better.

Although Kolb’s performance over the course of the season was remarkable, it certainly didn’t hurt that he was surrounded by an excellent supporting cast. The receiving corps was outstanding: Brandon Middleton, who led all receivers in receiving yards (1,250) and touchdowns (14), was UH’s leading scorer with 84 points. He will be missed, but the Coogs are still loaded at wideout. Vincent Marshall, who capped his sophomore season with the 82-yard touchdown catch-and-run at Hawaii, had 60 receptions for 812 yards and 7 touchdowns. Chad McCullar and Leonard Gibson combined for 50 receptions, 710 yards and 3 TDs. TE Jonathan Pritchett had a respectable senior season with 17 receptions for 161 yards and a touchdown as well.

And when was the last time Houston had such a good running attack? Anthony Evans rushed for 1149 yards (4.9 yards/carry) and 9 touchdowns. Jackie Battle rushed for 560 yards (5.5 yards/carry) and 9 touchdowns. Bobby Tillman rushed for 442 yards (4.6 yards/carry) and a touchdown. Vincent Marshall served as rusher as well, rushing for 147 yards (10.5 yards/carry) and a touchdown. In addition to his superb blocking skills at fullback, Matt Schirmer rushed for 140 yards (4.1 yards/carry) and a pair of touchdowns. And let’s not forget Kevin Kolb himself: 346 yards rushing (2.6 yards per carry) and seven TDs. And they’ll all be back next year.

The offense thrived due to the play of the offensive line. Anchored by experienced seniors such as Rex Hadnot and Matt Maddox, the front five opened holes for the running game and gave Kevin Kolb the protection he needed to find his receivers. It remains to be seen if the 2004 line, minus these athletes, will be as good as the 2003 line; the 2004 recruiting class does include 5 offensive linemen (including a guy from Germany), a sophomore OL transfer from Army, and two tight ends. It remains to be seen if any of them will be able to contribute this fall, but in any case the future looks bright on the offensive side of the ball.

However, while the good news for the Coogs was that their offense averaged 34.5 points per game, the bad news is that their defense up 36.0 points per game, including scores of 66, 62, 50, 45 and 42 points in regulation. There’s just no sugar-coating the performance of the defense: it was dreadful. The defense gave up almost 209 yards per game through the air and another 232 yards per game on the ground. The Cougars could rarely mount an effective pass rush, their play against the run was especially frightful, and opponents averaged 6.3 yards per play against the beleagured UH defense.

The defense lacked depth and was plagued by injuries to key players. LB Damien West, for example, missed much of the season with a torn MCL, and DE Farouk Adelekan went down for the season with an ankle injury against Tulane. The situation was such that several true freshmen saw significant playing time, despite their relative inexperience. As frustrating as the defense was to watch from the stands, it was no doubt even more frustrating for the players; they were simply stretched to their limits.

In spite of all this, there were some bright spots on the defensive side of the ball. Lance Everson stepped in at MLB after the injury to Damien West and led the team with 126 tackles, including 18 tackles for losses. DL Joe Clay led the team in sacks with seven, including a sack of Tulane QB Losman which saved a win for the Coogs. Will Gulley and Stanford Routt each had four interceptions. The play of several true freshman, such as Eddie McCray, Marquay Love and Wade Koehl, was inspired. With a years’ worth of experience and some time in the weight room, these guys will be a real treat to watch in 2004. However, it is clear that Art Briles and his staff have a lot of work to do and a lot of holes to fill over the course of the offseason. The Cougars did focus heavily on defensive side of the ball during recruiting, signing 4 defensive linemen (including one juco), 4 linebackers (as well as a junior transfer from Texas Tech) and 3 defensive backs as well as a blazing-fast wide receiver from Beaumont who will probably play at cornerback.

Special teams were a bright spot in 2003; Dustin Bell was 14 of 19 on field goals and a perfect 56 of 56 on extra points. Cougar kick returners averaged 22.7 yards on kick returns and 10.1 yards on punt returns, and punter Jimy McClary averaged just under 42 yards per punt. There’s still some work to be done on special teams – coverage on kickoffs could be better and those pooch kick have got to go – but the horrid special teams play of just a couple of years ago appears to be, thankfully, a thing of the past. Team discipline, another weakness during previous seasons, improved as well. While penalties were a real problem for the Cougars towards the beginning of the season – the team committed 18 penalties against Louisiana-Lafayette, 13 penalties against Mississippi State and 15 penalties a few weeks later against Tulane – as the season progressed the number of mistakes began to wane. In their final four games the Cougars committed only 14 penalties combined, and the finale against UAB saw Houston flagged only once. I was especially heartened by the fact that the Cougars never lost their composure, even in the face of furious comeback rallies from schools like Mississippi State and Tulane. This was a welcome change from the previous year, when the Coogs wilted under second-half comebacks from UAB and ECU. The team’s never-give-up spirit was especially evident during the Hawaii Bowl.

Because the team is relatively loaded at the so-called “skill positions,” Briles and his staff focused their recruiting efforts on offensive and defensive linemen and defensive backs. The resulting class signed on Feburary 4, 2004 wasn't particularly flashy, and some Cougar fans were a bit underwhelmed because the class was not as highly-rated as they would have liked to see and did not contain any “blue-chip” prospects. While this class might not be one of UH’s best – I personally would have liked to have seen another defensive JUCO or two – the fact is that the staff did a good job of pulling in needed bodies. Speed was an emphasis of this class, and several of the players had academic as well as athletic honors, which in all likelihood will translate into fewer grade casualties and higher graduations rates for the program. What affect the class will have on this fall’s team obviously remains to be seen; they all need to become qualified and enrolled. While most of the incoming freshmen can probably expect to redshirt this fall, the precarious situation on defense will probably require some true freshmen to play immediately.

So, what does the future hold for the Coogs? I’m not going to make any predictions for the 2004 season just yet – it’s still too far away. But nobody should kid themselves about 2004: with out-of-conference foes which include national co-champion LSU on the road and Miami at home, and a conference slate that will probably include Memphis, TCU and Southern Miss (the three teams that beat the Coogs at home) on the road, this fall will be a much tougher row to hoe than 2003. The Coogs could very well be an improved team on the field but not improve over their seven wins of 2003 in the “W” column.

If the Coogs do manage to return to a bowl game in 2004, I hope that they don’t back to Hawaii. While I’m glad that the Cougars were able to go to the islands this past season – they certainly deserved the reward – the Hawaii Bowl was really little more than a glorified road trip. The Coogs were playing at their opponent's home stadium and couldn’t even bring the band or travel more than a handful of fans. Futhermore, the numerous reports of our fans being treated rudely at the game as well as the violence on the field after the game was over reflects the fact that Hawaii is not a particularly pleasant place to play. At a more selfish level, I’d like the Coogs to play someplace I can actually travel to – Memphis, Perhaps?!

Things are looking good for 2004 – provided adjustments can be made to the defense. This is going to turn out to be one of the longest offseasons we've experienced in a long while. But there’s no need to go through tailgating withdrawal while you’re waiting for the season to begin – that’s what Chug-a-Lug Park is for!

Also, be sure to see the pictures I took over the course of the 2003 season.

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