University of Houston Athletics
Football Holds Light Workout on Tuesday
12/13/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 13, 2005
HOUSTON - With less than a week before the team heads north on Interstate 45 to prepare for the Fort Worth Bowl, the University of Houston football team lifted weights and enjoyed a light walk-through Tuesday afternoon inside the Yeoman Fieldhouse.
The Cougars meet Big 12 Conference opponent Kansas at 7 p.m., Dec. 23 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas. The game can be heard live on KTRH 740 AM with the pregame show slated to start at 6 p.m. Tom Frank will call the play-by-play action and be joined in the booth by color analyst Tony Fitzpatrick. Chuck Brown serves as the roving sideline reporter.
In addition, the game will be televised live nationally on ESPN. Gary Thorne will call the action with Ed Cunningham serving as the color analyst and Dr. Jerry Punch on the sidelines.
After working out in the weight room for about 45 minutes, many of the players held loose, light drills inside with many practicing out of position. Fans could spot junior quarterback Kevin Kolb running crisp receiving routes, while senior offensive lineman Roy Swan looked effective as a safety in a scrimmage against his offensive line brethren.
The team will take Wednesday off before returning to the practice field Thursday.
"We're still excited and pumped, but we're still serious," head coach Art Briles said following the team's efforts in the weight room. "We are serious about representing this football program, representing this University and representing this city. We have a job to do, but we earned this job, so we are going to take full advantage of it."
The Cougars (6-5, 4-4 C-USA) have been working out in earnest since Dec. 7. After going through light workouts last week, the coaching staff and players will turn up the intensity a little more this week before heading to Fort Worth.
"We will just fine-tune a little more. We will make sure that our minds and bodies are in sync as far as preparing for game week," said Briles, now in his third season at the helm of the Cougar program. "Last week, we were working ourselves back into game shape. Now, we will work ourselves back into game shape physically as well as mentally. It will be a more mental preparation along with the physical."
This will be the second bowl appearance for the Cougars in three years, the first time that UH has accomplished that feat since the 1980-81 teams competed in the Garden State and Sun bowls. The recent bowl experience will be nothing but a plus for the 2005 Cougar squad, according to its head coach.
"It really has been a benefit for us. When we went in 2003, it was the first time UH had been in seven years," Briles said. "A lot of these guys were there in 2003. They understand the preparation time that it takes to get ready for a bowl and the ramifications of a bowl game. We are a more intelligent football team than we were in 2003 as far as bowl preparedness."
Besides the national exposure of playing in a bowl game and the benefits that go with that, competing in a bowl game also gives Briles and his coaching staff more time to practice and work with the team, especially the younger players.
"It is huge as far as evaluating our younger players. We actually get another three-and-a-half weeks with them in a little less pressurized situation," Briles said. "We have a week or two in here where we can pay attention to them before we gear up for the bowl week. It's a tremendous benefit for us not only as a program but to know these guys on a closer basis."
