off the field... Game Day at Cougar Town

H

Hu_Fan

Guest
Well, fate takes unusual turns... College Game Day will be in Houston this weekend for its first ever trip to University of Houston. Visiting team is SMU.

You know... those two schools not wanted in the Big 12. Especially Houston.

As to Game Day, I think College Station had been expecting a visit. Didn't happen. Austin was left out this year, but I think that skip was rather expected.

Wonder who the guest will be at the end of the show making selections? Collegiate? Pro? Other?

With Boise loss, Cougs win out could land them in the Fiesta Bowl as a logical At-Large pick.
 
At first I was shocked that GD would be at UH, then I looked at next week's schedule.

There are 3 games matching 2 ranked teams against each other:

Neb v. Mich (GD has already been to Mich this year)
OU v. Baylor (Has GD ever been to Baylor?)
KSU v. Texas (Probably was the GD destination before yesterday's loss)

So it probably came down to which Texas city they wanted to go to: Waco or Houston. Tough choice.
 
Wonder if they'll mention Choke City or 100-6? Bound to.

Hook'em!!!
texasflag.gif
 
UH won the SWC 1978(?) and was set to play Joe Montana's Domers in the Cotton Bowl.

A Dallas-area sportswriter noted:

"Great. Half the Cougars will be eating at the 7-11s. The other half will be sticking them up."

The Domers won in a frigid, icy, snowey CB --- Montana got hypothermia and was fed hot chicken broth at halftime to get his core temperature up.

UH's coach Bill Yoeman, IMHO, made one of the dumbest coaching calls ever. UH was ahead very late in the 4th and went for a first down on 4th down and short instead of having their QB run back toward the endzone, eat up 20 seconds or so, for a safety (UH would still be ahead by more than a FG) and a free kick.

UH didn't make the 1st (on their side of the field, around the 30 or so, IIRC, with about a minute left).

Montana took them in for a TD and won the game.

With all the players slipping and sliding all over the CB turf, it would have been a tall order for ND to drive 80 yards in a minute --- 30 yards not so much.

The "Chicken Soup" Game:
The Link
 
I wonder if they were originally planning to be at Penn State vs Ohio State. Under normal circumstances, that would be the logical choice this weekend.
 
if it weren't for network rivalry they could have Jim Nantz do the celebrity picks.

He was interviewed for the Dallas Morning News the other day. His biggest athletic thrill: lettering in Golf at Houston, most exciting year of his athletic career.
 
and after looking at the wiki page, the obvious answer to me is Clyde Drexler.

dont' know how many young people know him today, but he's tied with Hakeem for the best credentials and is very good in front of the mike, at least what I've seen.
 
Texas would be undefeated with the crappy schedule U of H has played this year. Hell, even Boise St. is laughing.

Perhaps Houston would not have been left behind if they could up their attendance to more than 32,000 a game.
 
The fact of the matter is that they are undefeated and have record setting players (not just Keenum). With a great chance at making it into a BCS game, ESPN won't ignore them. They are also likely moving to the Big East, which draws more interest to them. Deal with it.

Also, would a Big 12 school that dropped to CUSA be able to draw 30,000 for every crappy opponent that UH plays? UT and OU, yes. Everyone else, maybe not. A lot of the problems UH has is in direct relation to the conference they are in.

A lot of Hornfans hate UH for some reason. I really don't get it. Does anyone care to explain why?
 
Bleachergate, was a pretty big deal!!!

We wanted to play in Houston so that we could have a game in Houston and they moved it to their rinky dink stadium and made it ***** for Texas fans.
 
There are a lot of misconceptions about "Bleachergate". I was there. At the time of Bleachergate, the Astrodome was a wreck. Even the Oilers did not want to practice there for fear of injury on the Dome's crappy old turf the years before. The Dome was already shut down as Reliant was being built. Parking lots were a mess during the building of Reliant and Reliant was not ready yet. The Dome was never an option. The only other venue for the event would have been Rice stadium. UH's AD Chet Gladchuck (now at Navy) balked at the idea of moving the event and making the game more UT fan attendance friendly. It was UH's home game and honestly can you blame them for refusing to move their home game to another venue to accommodate more opposing team's fans? Would Texas move a game from Austin to San Antonio's Alamo Dome to let more Aggie fans buy tickets? As a compromise, UH contracted with the company that built Salt Lake City's Olympic stands to build extra seating for the game for UT fans. UH had no control over the actual design/construction of the seats. Seats were sold however, mostly to UT fans. As details and pictures of the shoddy construction emerged, the UH AD looked at the stands and deemed them unsafe. Lot's of UT fans were screwed out of their seats. I believe refunds were offered. Those with tickets to that game can confirm or deny. Fans were offered seats in UH's basketball arena with a big screen view of the game. Small compensation for not getting to see the game 'live".

Examining the events, UH contracted with a company to provide seating that ultimately proved unsafe. A lot like the recent Superbowl at Jerry World. Honestly, UH could have said, "Screw it. It is our home game, you get 2500 seats. Deal with it." How many seats does Texas give to the opposing team for each game? Was it UH's responsibility to move a home game to effectively an "away" game at Rice to accommodate more opposing team's fans? Would UT do this to accommodate ND, LSU, Bama? UH was caught it a crappy situation and messed up. Stuff happens. Move on.
 
I got my refund for the Bleacher seats and used it to buy a new TV to watch Simms torch the Coogs.

Reliant Stadium was open for business that year. Construction was finished and the Texans were playing there.

I watched Earl and the Horns beat UH at Rice Stadium in 1977, so there was some not so distant history of moving UH home games for more capacity. Their home back then was the Dome. i think earl knocked down Bevo in that game.

No love for Cougar High here, but they are beating all the softies on their schedule.
 
I'm happy to see GD coming to Houston. It wasn't like they were coming here. I know the UH schedule has been weak but good for them. Hope they run the table, pull off a surprise Bowl win.
 
ShinerTX, Reliant opened in Aug 2002. The UH UT game at Houston was Sept. 2001. I remember the game, it was right after 9/11 happened. UH played at UT Sept 2002. Reliant was not a viable venue in 2001.
 
Houston and their schedule is a complete joke and I don't understand why people keep jumping on their bandwagon. Sure they are undefeated but they have played one, yes one team all season with a winning record. And that is mighty LA Tech at 6 and 4. I would venture to guess most any Big 12 team would also be undefeated with their schedule with the exception of maybe KU and TT. And I wouldn't be surprised if they were. If they beat Tulsa on the road then maybe they deserve a little more credit. But still they will have only had to get up for one challenging game all season. Not worthy at all in my opinion of a BCS bid even if they stay undefeated. And some will jump to their defense and blame their schedule on their sorry conference but why should their sorry conference get them a BCS bid over some other team that has played a demanding schedule and has 2 losses. I guarantee you if Case Keenum were facing tough defensive lines in top tier conferences he would on his back a lot more and throwing a lot less.
 
First off the only reason we even agreed to a home game for Houston was so that we could buy a ton of tickets. The NCAA minimum for a visiting team is 4000 tickets.

The Houston AD, who was also AD at Boston College during their game fixing scandal. Woody Woodchuck wanted to stick it to Texas as he thought it would energize his program.

The use of Robertson stadium came up in the last six months for the game.

It was a huge loss in money to UH because you only had 32000 fans and not 50-60K fans.

They hosted HS games in the Astrodome through what 2004?
Westfield vs. Judson
The Next Year Katrina happened and they don't play football there any more. Reliant has natural grass and can't handle too many games.

Don't freaking try and tell me the Astrodome wasn't ready for UH and Texas because you were there!

There are no if's and's or but's the UH chump of an AD was trying to stick it to Texas, pure and simple.

UH made their bed, let them lie in it. That AD probably cost UH a cool quarter million dollars to the school itself not to mention the Texas fans that would have traveled to the game from Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio.

Because the Astrodome was not able to host football.....
rolleyes.gif
 
The reason UT agreed to a home game was to recruit the Houston area. It is the same reason Texas plays Rice. While catering to UT alums is nice, the university cares more about recruits than the fans. Houston is a hot bed for talent and having a game there once a year is a boon for Texas.

Majorwhiteapples, you are right, I was in Houston at the time and recall the stadium situation very well. The Astrodome parking lot was a freaking mess while Reliant was being built. The Dome wasn't being used (Astros left in 2000) so the construction company used the parking area around the Dome for their storage of equipment, supplies and worker parking, there would have been no place for fans to park to even attend the game.
They may have played HS games there later, but the Astroturf at that time was a joke. Bud Adams quit putting money into that facility a long time ago trying to force Houston's hand to build him a new stadium. Oilers and opposing teams bitched about the playing surface, poor seams and subsequent risk of injury all the time. They actually cancelled a preseason game in 95 because of the field conditions. Realistically the Dome was never an option. Rice Stadium would have been the only other venue.

UH did not lose revenue by refusing to move the game. At Robertson, UH gets parking, concessions and ticket revenue at a paid for venue. Renting the Dome or Rice means UH loses parking fees, concessions and still has to pay for rental of the facility. It was a smart economic move for UH to stay on campus.

That being said, even if the Dome was an option and the money equal, do you really think UH would just move a home game to a different venue to cater to another school? What would be the point? Should ANY school ever move a game to essentially make a home game an "away" game by increasing opposing fans? Never.
 
Sorry Gasman, I just can't buy your parking lot premise. More than 4 weeks of Rodeo/BBQ Cookoff was held in that parking lot during the same construction period you mentioned and that didn't reduce the attendance to those events. I was there too. Playing surface issues are valid. But a lot of other teams played on that poor surface. uh could have too. Like other posters said...uh was just exercising their will on the flagship university of the state.....more envy than anything else. The Astrodome would have provided a much more comfortable atmosphere for fans, officials and players, as would have Rice Stadium. Have ya done the math to prove that selling at least 30K more tickets would NOT produce more income than rent, concessions and parking at Robertson would have.....just wondering.
 
BOG, my goal is not to necessarily defend UH. However the Houston Livestock Show/Rodeo is in March not September. The Rodeo event also has a heck of a lot more clout than a single UH game regarding demanding parking and access to the Dome. The Houston LSR organization in fact, was one of the driving factors in Reliant being a retractable roof stadium vs as simple open stadium for the Texans if I recall correctly from newspaper articles at the time of the build.

The roof of Reliant was being placed on the stadium in Oct 2001. Right before the UH/UT game in late Sept. That portion of the stadium build process was very labor/supply/equipment intensive and required a large portion of the parking lot. I recall driving by it on a daily basis and being amazed at the stuff piled up there. The lot on the south/east side of the Dome was full of all kinds of crap. There was no way to play a game at the Dome.

Again, can anyone argue (venue options aside) why any team should move their home game to a different stadium to accommodate another teams fans. Put the burnt orange glasses aside for a second. Was UH sticking it to UT, probably. Would Dodds ever move an event to help out ND, BYU, OSU, LSU? I would hope UT alumni would demand his head if he ever did.
 
As I mentioned above, UH moved their game with us to Rice Stadium back in the 70's. I'm pretty sure it was sold out.
 
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