Saturday, October 30, 2010

Houston Cougars To Face C-USA Foe Memphis At The Liberty Bowl

By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2010 TexSport Publications

HOUSTON, TEXAS (October 30, 2010) The Houston Cougars (4-3, 3-1 C-USA) will travel to the state of Tennessee to take on the Memphis Tigers (1-6, 0-4 C-USA). Game time is set for 6:00pm at the Liberty Bowl.

The contest will be the 19th meeting between Memphis and Houston, with the Cougars having a 6-5 record versus the Tigers while members of Conference USA.

Overall, Houston leads the series 10-9, with a 4-4 record playing in Memphis.

The first meeting between these foes was on November 30, 1963 with the Tigers winning 29-6. Last year, Houston downed Memphis 55-14 at Robertson Stadium.

In Houston’s four wins, the Cougars have outscored their opponents by an average of 28.5 points. UH won by 40 in the season opener vs. Texas State, by 30 over UTEP, were 19-point winners over Tulane and won by 25 at SMU.

Houston ranks in the top-25 nationally in total, passing and scoring offense. With 39.6 points per game, UH is ninth in the NCAA in scoring, while 284.4 passing yards per contest is 17th. The UH total offense is ranked 24th with 442.6 yards per game.

UH has started true freshmen quarterbacks the past four games; David Piland vs. Mississippi State, at Rice and at SMU and Terrance Broadway against Tulane. Until the fourth game of the season, UH had not started a true freshman quarterback since Kevin Kolb in 2003.

Twelve true-freshmen have played for the Cougars this season opener; TE Kenneth Bibbins, Jr., QB Terrance Broadway, DB Kent Brooks, DL Jeremiah Farley, DB Aaron Johnson, DB D.J. Jones, WR Darian Lazard, P Richie Leone, DB Zach McMillan, LB Efrem Oliphant, QB David Piland and LB Austin Wilson.

With his two rushing touchdowns at SMU, junior running back Bryce Beall broke the school career record for rushing touchdowns with 32, topping Jackie Battle’s 31 scored from 2003-06. Beall also has 12 rushing touchdowns for the season which is three away from the school single-season record of 15.

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