Cougars Conclude Spring With Offensive Explosion

4/12/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football

April 12, 2008

HOUSTON, Texas - When new University of Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin arrived last December, he promised the Cougars would be even more explosive than they were in the previous five years. Boy, he wasn't kidding.

In the annual Red-White Game at John O'Quinn Field at Robertson Stadium, the Cougars' offense was in hyper-drive, generating almost 660 yards and seven touchdowns through the air, as the White defeated the Red, 69-34, in front of several thousand Houston fans.

"All in all I thought it was pretty good," Sumlin said. "We've only had 15 practices, so we tried to get some practice work out of this even though it's a game situation. I was real pleased with the quarterbacks and their accuracy today. They protected the ball pretty well."

In an unique scoring system that gave points to first downs and long plays on offense and third-down stops and forcing turnovers on defense, it definitely was the Cougar offense that got the upper hand on the UH defense. Junior quarterback Blake Joseph looked quite comfortable in the UH spread offense, completing 37-of-41 passes for 421 yards and five touchdowns.

Sophomore Case Keenum - the 2007 Conference USA Freshman of the Year - was no slouch behind center, throwing for 205 yards and two touchdowns while completing 28-of 35 of his attempts. Joseph hooked up with Justin Johnson (65 yards), Chris Gilbert (12 yards), L.J. Castile (7 yards), Chaz Rodriguez (10 yards) and Mark Hafner (30 yards) on scoring touchdowns, while Keenum found Patrick Edwards (6 yards) on the first drive and later hooked up with Gilbert from five yards out.

Even though the Cougar defense gave up the yards through the air, they were quite impressive against the run. The UH defenders held its offensive teammates to just 19 rushing yards on 36 carries, while racking up seven sacks, three tackles for losses, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. Senior defensive end Phillip Hunt paced the defensive attack with four tackles, including one sack and one TFL.

Despite the juggernaut of a final score, Sumlin was quick to praise the efforts of his defense.

"You've got to take it with a grain of salt," Sumlin said. "I thought there were a couple of sacks in there that Phillip Hunt had that maybe should have been called. But I was pretty pleased with our effort."

Now that spring practice is complete, the Cougars buckle down now for semester finals at the end of the month and then meet the off-season in full force come June. Houston returns to practice in early August and begins its 2008 season on August 30, by playing host to Southern University in a first-ever match-up between the two schools.

"We really got a lot of reps," Sumlin said. "I think we had 120 snaps of football today, and by keeping our (first) teams together rather than watering them down by mixing them up, I thought we accomplished what I wanted to accomplish."

---www.UHCougars.com---

Rushing --- Andre Kohn 6-34, Justin Johnson 6-15, Jovan Davis 3-5, Jacob Broner 5-3, Terrance Ganaway 2-(-1), Tramaine Dorsey 1-(-5), Blake Joseph 3-(-6), Case Keenum 8-(-6), Team 2-(-20).

Passing --- Blake Joseph 37-41-0 421 yards 5 TDs; Case Keenum 28-35-0 205 yards 2 TDs; Austin Elrod 4-4-0 31 yards.

Receiving --- Chris Gilbert 11-100 2 TDs; Patrick Edwards 8-46 1 TD; Mark Hafner 7-90 1 TD; Chaz Rodriguez 6-32 1 TD; Justin Johnson 4-82 1 TD; Andre Kohn 4-43; L.J. Castile 4-39 1 TD; Michael Benson 4-29; Demetrius Woods 3-25; E.J. Smith 2-28; Anthony Reasno 2-18; Tim Monroe 2-17; JoJo Florence 1-48; Blake Patton 1-20; Brian Smelek 1-7; Jacob Broner 1-1.