Is Houston Still Contender in American Athletic Conference After Rough Start?

The Houston Cougars have lost two of their first three games to open the 2014 season. Their lone win, a 47-0 shellacking of Grambling State at home, was notched against a winless Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FCS) school.

Down 23-0 late in the first half, Houston’s comeback bid fell short against BYU on Thursday. BYU escaped in front of their home crowd with a 33-25 win.

Obviously, things are not going as planned for head coach Tony Levine. After opening the season, as well as Houston’s new home, TDECU Stadium, with a 27-7 program-injuring loss to the University of Texas at San Antonio, Houston fans were akin to a big, red balloon being pricked by a pin: All the air of 2014 hopes and expectations flew out of them in one giant pop.

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So if Houston fans entered the season with high aspirations of their team earning a bid to the newly formatted college football playoff system or one of the four lucrative selection committee bowl games, those dreams certainly have dissipated by now.

Houston just hasn’t executed well enough to be one of college football’s elite teams this season. In order to accomplish something like that, a team has to have all its biggest issues sorted out well before the opening game. Houston didn’t.

But Houston remains in the hunt for the American Athletic Conference title. They remain 0-0 in that dogfight, and there were some positive signs over the last two games to give Houston fans hope going forward.

Houston’s offense hasn’t been what it should be this season. Whatever the reason—sophomore quarterback John O’Korn’s erratic play or new offensive coordinator Travis Bush’s lack of ingenuity—the Coogs’ high-flying offense has mostly been grounded so far.

But in Saturday’s loss to BYU, Houston’s ailing offense showed signs of new life. O’Korn had his best game of the season. He appeared accurate and in control. He threw for 307 yards on 30-of-52 pass attempts with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

Simply put, O’Korn played like the quarterback everyone thought he could be this year after he led all true freshman in passing touchdowns last season. He made plays all over the field and throws only the very elite among pigskin hurlers can make—none better than a his 45-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Spencer as time expired in the first half.

Moreover, Houston’s offense appeared to improve as an overall unit.

If offensive coordinator Bush was in over his head at the beginning of the season, he didn’t appear to be drowning against BYU. Houston’s offense moved the ball and made big plays when it had to.  

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No, this wasn’t the Air Raid offense Houston fans enjoyed under previous coordinators Dana Holgorsen, Kliff Kingsbury or even Doug Meacham. But Bush’s multiple-set spread offense looked like something that could actually work, and that’s more than the Cougars had going for them at the season’s start.

And Houston still has one more game to work on things before conference play begins. Houston hosts UNLV Sept. 20—their final nonconference game before AAC play begins.

In contrast to the continued evolution of a functioning offense, other facets of Houston's play regressed against BYU. Their special teams unit in particular lacked discipline and technique in Saturday's loss. In fact, Houston’s kicking game accounted for one missed field goal and two missed extra points—that’s five points left off the scoreboard in a game that was close for most of the second half.

Levine, a former special teams coordinator, has to get his unit back on track.

But let’s face it, while the AAC is the best non-Power Five conference in the nation, it’s not exactly the SEC. Houston has the overall talent to compete with any team in the AAC right now, and improved execution could slot them right in with the conference’s best teams: Cincinnati, Central Florida and East Carolina.

After the BYU loss, Houston players and coaches seemed resilient.

"You have to give a lot of credit to our team for not giving up and not folding. We just kept fighting," linebacker Derrick Matthews told the Associated Press.

Levine echoed the same to the Houston Chronicle’s Jody Genessy:

"

A loss is a loss. However, I will say coming into a hostile environment, playing a Top 25 team and falling behind 23-0 and never losing confidence or composure on the sidelines, battling back and having an opportunity to come back and tie the game late, I was proud of our student-athletes, our staff and our coaches.

"

Houston fans haven’t had much to be confident about so far this year. Nor have many of them maintained their composure. Houston message boards are rife with angry messages over the team’s poor start, and a website dedicated to firing Levine already has come out of the woodwork, too.

Fans are mad.

But Houston’s players and coaches seem to have their minds made up. They believe they can still compete for the AAC crown. They believe they can still become bowl eligible. They believe they can still make their season mean something.

And they can. They just need to do it.