University of Houston Athletics
Cougars Notes for Thursday, September 27
9/27/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 27, 2001
Houston, Texas - The University of Houston football team will be playing for some high stakes when the meet a familiar face at John O'Quinn Field Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.
The Cougars will be looking for their first win of the season and an opportunity to move into a position of contending for a Conference USA crown. Meanwhile, TCU will be looking to win their first C-USA contest in school history.
"It is a big game for both teams," Houston head coach Dana Dimel said. "Which-ever team wins this game will put themselves into automatic contention for the league championship and one of the four bowl games in which Conference USA teams play."
The game also will mark the first time that the two schools to play each other since 1995.
"It is the renewal of an old rivalry in the Southwest Conference," Dimel. "It's also the beginning of a great rivalry between TCU and Houston in Conference USA.
"We feel like in the future, both teams can be top teams in this conference, as we improve and get t o where we need to be and TCU tries to maintain the level of play that they have reached in the past as a member of the WAC."
In addition to renewing a rivalry between the two schools, it also will reunite some familiar faces among both teams' coaching staffs. Dimel and TCU head coach Gary Patterson were on Bill Snyder's staff at Kansas State.
In addition, Patterson was also the secondary coach when current UH defensive coordinator Dick Bumpas was the defensive coordinator at Utah State and Navy.
"They will run the same defensive package as we do and have a lot of the same terminology," Dimel said. "Both teams also like to run a lot of offensive formations at you during the game.
"The biggest difference is that they will use almost exclusive play-action passes instead of dropping straight back to throw, which is what we do."
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