University of Houston Athletics
Cougar Football Notes
10/14/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 14, 2003
HOUSTON - The University of Houston football team began preparations for this weekend's Conference USA showdown against Memphis with a solid workout Tuesday at the Cougar practice fields.
"We are in the process of building toward Saturday. We don't have to be great on Tuesday, but we are going to be great on Saturday," first-year head coach Art Briles said. "We are maintaining our composure and accelerating our strength."
The Cougars, who worked out for slightly more than two hours, play host to Memphis at 7 p.m., Saturday, in the friendly confines of John O'Quinn Field at Robertson Stadium.
That starts a busy homestand for UH, which plays its next three home games over a four-week span at home and sees four of its last six games in Houston, an advantage for the Cougar Football program, Briles said.
"We're excited to be at home. We are anticipating a great crowd and a great atmosphere at Robertson Stadium," Briles said. "We've done a good job of being a tough road team, which was one of our goals this year. Now, we have to be an even tougher home team."
Like the Cougars, Memphis (3-3, 0-2 C-USA) brings a high-powered offense into this weekend's game, averaging more than 460 yards of offense per game. However, the Cougars faced a similar offensive-minded team in Tulane last weekend, so that will help the UH defense in their preparations this week.
"We're going to see basically what we saw last week as far as accelerated pace, the style of play and even the play selection to some degree. We're not going from an option team to a throwing team; we're staying with a throwing team," Briles said. "That is definitely an advantage from our defensive standpoint."
