After an abysmally slow start - the Cougars were down 0-17 midway through the third quarter - Houston rallied to score 27 unanswered points and notch their first conference win of the season.
The Good: Once the Cougar offense finally woke up midway through the third quarter, they were all but unstoppable. QB Conner Weigman threw for 239 yards and rushed for 50 more, including all three Houston touchdowns. The Coogs ended that game with 393 yards of total offense.
The defense, surprisingly enough, kept the Cougars in this game, limiting the Golden Knights 17 total points. UCF could convert only 4 of its 14 third-down conversion attempts.
The game's winning margin came courtesy of K Jonathan Dimas, who made two field goals (including a career-long 46-yarder) and earned Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week honors.
The Bad: How disastrous was the first half for Houston's offense? The Cougars got within ten yards of the UCF goal line three times - and came away with zero points.
The Ugly: The announced attendance of 25,593 was considerably larger than the actual number of butts in seats at this game and the program is getting dragged accordingly on social media. While it's hard to defend the shitty UH fanbase (and I was part of the problem because I was at a family event in Louisiana instead of at the game), I think the UH faithful - what there is of them - have made their opinion clear about 11 am kickoffs.
Better marketing would help as well. The program rolled out special space-themed helmets for this game but this was not announced until the night before the game.
What It Means: The Cougars are now 1-1 in conference play with a tough stretch of games ahead of them, beginning with a road trip to Manhattan, Kansas to take on the KSU Wildcats this weekend.
