Football Daily Practice Notes
11/9/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 9, 2004
HOUSTON - The University of Houston football team began preparations for its final road contest of the 2004 season Tuesday with a solid workout at the UH Athletics Complex.
The Cougars meet Conference USA rival UAB at 3 p.m., Saturday at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala.
Saturday's game will be broadcast on Star 790, KBME-AM with the pregame show beginning 45 minutes prior to kickoff. Tom Franklin and Tony Fitzpatrick will call all the action from the booth with Chuck Brown serving as the sideline reporter.
All Cougar Football games can be heard live on the Internet by logging onto www.UHCougars.com.
A year ago, the Cougars took a 56-28 win over the Blazers in the regular-season finale to snap a four-game losing streak to UAB and clinch a spot in the 2003 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.
Although the Cougars will be unable to compete in a bowl game for a second consecutive season, UH second-year head coach Art Briles still finds many things to be proud of in his team.
"The thing that I am really most pleased with is the attitude and effort that our players and coaches have maintained throughout the season," Briles said. "To be able to come on and hang on and improve as the season developed, to me, is a testament to our team. There are a lot of different ways to measure a champion, and I think one measure of a champion is somebody who continually gets better from one day to the next. And I think that's what we've done as a football team."
With back-to-back wins over C-USA rivals Tulane and East Carolina, the Cougars bring their first winning streak of the season into this weekend's game against the Blazers. Briles was quick to credit the improved play in the team's offensive and defensive fronts for the team's recent success.
"I think the two most improved areas of our football team are our offensive line and the defensive line. I think that's been the difference the last two weeks," Briles said. "We had a great push defensively last week against ECU, and the week before against Tulane. Our O-line has really done some good things protection-wise which has enabled us to do some things from an offensive standpoint."