University of Houston Athletics
Daily Football Practice Report
10/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 18, 2005
HOUSTON - The University of Houston football team returned to the practice field Tuesday afternoon in preparations for this weekend's road contest at Mississippi State.
The Cougars (3-3, 2-2 C-USA) worked out for about two hours at the UH Athletics Complex under clear skies and mild temperatures.
UH meets the Bulldogs at 1:30 p.m., Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss. This weekend's game will be broadcast on ESPN 790 AM with Tom Franklin handling play-by-play and Tony Fitzpatrick providing color analysis. Former All-Southwest Conference center Chuck Brown serves as the roving sideline reporter.
The Bulldogs will be the Cougars' last non-conference game of the season before facing Conference USA opponents in each of the last four games. While Mississippi State comes into the game with a 2-4 overall record, UH head coach Art Briles said that record can be misleading.
"They have four losses. Try Auburn, LSU, Florida and Georgia. That's four pretty good football teams," Briles said. "It will be a good test for us from the stance of mental toughness and physical ability. They are a physical football team that is well coached, well disciplined."
The Cougars come into the game on the heels of a disappointing 35-20 loss to C-USA rival Memphis last weekend at John O'Quinn Field at Robertson Stadium. That was the first home game for the Cougars in a 35-day span after the threat of Hurricane Rita forced the postponement of UH's schedule game against Southern Miss in late September.
UH was the victim of two key fumbles deep in Memphis territory in its loss to the Tigers and managed only three points in five trips inside the red zone during the second half. However, Briles said his team didn't need any major adjustments, just a continuing refinement during this week's practice.
"Those are little things to where we might have had one person take a step the wrong way or not at the right time that it should have been," said Briles, now in his fourth year at UH. "It's just little things like that. If one or two things go our way in certain situations, then we probably don't even notice those things."
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With the changes in the Cougars' schedule during the month of November, fans also should note a ticket exchange policy. The Southern Miss game, originally scheduled at Robertson Stadium for Sept. 24 was rescheduled for 4 p.m., Nov. 13, due to Hurricane Rita. For the Southern Miss-Houston game to be played on Nov. 13, the Cougars' game against SMU, originally scheduled for Nov. 12, was postponed one week and will now be played in Houston on Nov. 19. Any fan that purchased a ticket for either of these games may do one of the following:
1. Keep the current tickets, as it will be valid for the new rescheduled game dates. 2. Exchange your tickets for one of the remaining 2005 home football games.
The Homecoming game against SMU originally scheduled for Nov. 12 has been changed to the Southern Miss game on Nov. 13 at 4 p.m. If fans had tickets for the Homecoming game and still want to attend Homecoming weekend, they MUST Exchange their SMU tickets for Southern Miss tickets. The SMU tickets WILL NOT BE VALID for the Southern Miss game. All tickets must be exchanged in advance of the game date. Tickets can be exchanged at the UH Athletic Ticket Office located in the Athletics/Alumni Center or by mailing to:
University of Houston Athletic Ticket Office 3100 Cullen Blvd., Ste. 1003 Houston, TX 77204 For more information, please call the ticket office at 713-GO-COOGS.
