University of Houston Athletics
Cougars Forge On Despite Wet Weather
8/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
HOUSTON - Despite the second straight day of late afternoon thunderstorms, the University of Houston football team managed to complete its first day of two-a-days with an early morning workout in helmets and shoulder pads and later a two-hour practice in full pads on Thursday.
The Cougars will wrap up their first full week of workouts with an afternoon practice tomorrow, and then the first scrimmage of the fall preseason on Saturday at 11:30 am at John O'Quinn Field at Robertson Stadium. The annual Fan Appreciation Day will follow the scrimmage.
"We worked on a lot of things (today)," UH head coach Kevin Sumlin said. "We actually stretched at 6 o'clock, which was on the heels of a downpour, the second one (in a row), so hopefully the fields will hold up. We don't go again until tomorrow afternoon.
"But, we need to get outside in full pads so we can work on our schemes and do some things. So, we were able to get a whole practice in (this evening), and I just learned it gets dark here about 8:15. This was pretty good."
The wet field provided Sumlin and his staff to take a look at how the UH squad would work under adverse playing conditions.
"I think (the rain) has been good for us," Sumlin added. "We had to wait a little bit, and had a monkey wrench thrown into (the workout.)
"It is wet so we had wet footballs. We are getting some wet-ball practice, I can tell you that, which is good. You never know what kind of conditions you're going to play in, whether it's rain or something like that. It's good for us to be outside."
The Cougars are slated to open the 2009 season in just over three weeks, hosting Northwestern State on Saturday, Sept. 5, at 4 pm at Robertson Stadium.
