University of Houston Athletics
Football Daily Practice Notes
9/13/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 13, 2005
HOUSTON - With a shorter week than usual, the University of Houston football team continued its preparations Tuesday for Friday's Conference USA showdown against UTEP.
The Cougars open their 2005 Conference USA season as they fact the Miners at 7:05 p.m. (CDT) at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. That game can be heard live on ESPN 790 AM with Tom Franklin handling play-by-play duties and Tony Fitzpatrick providing color analysis. Former All-Southwest Conference center Chuck Brown serves as the roving sideline reporter.
Fans also can hear the game on the Internet by logging onto www.UHCougars.com. In addition, the game will be the second of a school-record seven Cougar football games in 2005 on television. The showdown against the Miners will be broadcast live on ESPN2 with Dave Pasche calling the play-by-play action and Trevor Matich and Rod Gilmore as the color analysts. Stacy Dales-Schulman will serve as the sideline reporter.
The Cougars held their regular practice Tuesday at the UH Athletics Complex, working out for about two hours. The team entered their work week with a little momentum after taking a 31-10 win over area rival Sam Houston State last weekend.
While the team was not as crisp as he would have liked, head coach Art Briles said the main thing was the score at the end of the game.
"In the last game, we got a win,' said Briles, who is in his third year at the helm of the program. "That was the main thing we wanted out of it, and that's what we got. That's the bottom line. We wanted to get the win and get gone."
This week's game features the two teams who were picked in the Preseason Coaches' Poll to finish 1-2 in the C-USA West Division. While some fans may be disappointed that such an important game is happening so early in the season, Briles said he did not care when his team faced UTEP.
"It doesn't matter. All conference games are big because they have the same bearing on how you stand in the conference," Briles said. "I would have liked a full week to prepare a little bit. But it's what we were dealt so we will deal with it."
This will be the first time in nearly 57 years that the Cougars have faced UTEP on the gridiron. The Miners won encounters in 1946 and 1948 to hold a 2-0 lead in the all-time series.
UTEP comes into this week's game well-rested after taking a 34-17 win at New Mexico State on Sept. 3. The Miners are led by quarterback Jordan Palmer who passed for 187 yards and a pair of touchdowns against the Aggies.
