Football Hosts Louisiana Tech Saturday at 7 p.m.

9/5/2012 12:00:00 AM | Football

Â» Game Notes

FAST FACTS ON THE SERIES

Â» Series Record Overall Houston leads 4-2
Â» Series Record at Houston Houston leads 2-1
Â» Series Record at Louisiana Tech Houston leads 2-1
Â» First Meeting Houston 40, Louisiana Tech 33 (Oct. 4, 1948; at Houston)
Â» Last Meeting Houston 35, Louisiana Tech 34 (Sept. 17, 2011; at Ruston, La.)

THE GAME

Â» Houston looks to rebound from a season-opening loss when it hosts Louisiana Tech this Saturday at 7 p.m. in Robertson Stadium. Houston fell to Texas State, 30-13, in its season opener while Louisiana Tech saw its scheduled opener against Texas A&M in Shreveport, La., get postponed to Oct. 13 due to Hurricane Isaac.
Â» Sonny Dykes is entering his third season as head coach at Louisiana Tech and led the Bulldogs to the Poinsettia Bowl last season as the team won the 2011 WAC Championship. The game is Houston's second straight against a member of the WAC.
Â» Saturday's meeting is the second part of a home-and-home series that saw Houston claim last year's game in Ruston, La. After falling behind 34-7 in its third game of the season, the Cougars stormed back with 28 unanswered points in the final 20 minutes of the game.
Â» Last Saturday night's season-opening attendance of 32,207 was a sellout. The crowd ties the Nov. 19, 2011 game vs. SMU as the second largest Robertson Stadium crowd in school history.
Â» Saturday's game theme is Cougar Red Out with the first 1,000 students receiving red Houston t-shirts courtsey of Coca-Cola. All other Houston fans are encouraged to wear red to the game.

THE OPPONENT

Â» Louisiana Tech enters its third season under head coach Sonny Dykes, who in his first stint as a collegiate head coach after spending the previous three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Arizona. Dykes was named the 2011 WAC Coach of the Year after Louisiana Tech finished 8-5 including a trip to the Poinsetta Bowl.
Â» Saturday's game was originally scheduled to be the second game of the season for both teams but only Houston enters the weekend having played a game. Louisiana Tech was originally slated to play Texas A&M in Shreveport, La., on Thursday, Aug. 30, before the threat of Hurricane Isaac forced officials to cancel the game.

TIES WITH THE OPPONENT

Â» Houston Head Coach Tony Levine served as special teams coordinator and tight ends coach at Louisiana Tech for the 2002 season. Louisiana Tech is the second straight opponent that Levine has served on a staff as after serving as an assistant coach at Texas State from 1997-99.
Â» In his one season in Ruston, Levine worked alongside current Louisiana Tech offensive line coach Pete Perot and current strength and conditioning coach Damon Harrington.
Â» Louisiana Tech offensive coordinator Tony Franklin and Houston defensive line coach Ricky Logo worked together during the 2006 season at Troy, where Franklin was offensive coordinator and Logo was co-defensive coordinator
Â» Franklin played collegiately at Murray State, joining Houston defensive backs coach Zac Spavital as a former Racer standout
Â» Louisiana Tech's Inside receivers and special teams coach, Mark Tommerdahl, served as Minnesota's special teams coordinator during Tony Levine's senior season at Minnesota in 1995.

THE SERIES

Â» Houston and Louisiana Tech have met six times with the Cougars owning a 4-2 series advantage.
Â» Houston has won two games each in Houston, one at Robertson Stadium and one at the Astrodome, and in Ruston, La.
Â» The last meeting saw Houston claim its largest comeback in program history with a 35-34 win in Ruston on Sept. 17, 2011. After falling behind 34-7 Houston scored 28 points unanswered beginning with a 50-yard pass from Case Keenum to Patrick Edwards with 4:27 remaining in the third quarter.
Â» Houston returns 12 players that started in the 2011 match up.

LAST TIME OUT

Â» Houston opened its 67th season of football with its first of four non-conference games, taking a 30-13 loss to Texas State in the final season opener at Robertson Stadium.
Â» The loss snapped a season-opening game winning streak of four games and a home-opener streak of 10 games. The previous four season-openers, all at Robertson, had seen the Cougars defeat UCLA (38-34) in 2011, Texas State (68-28) in 2010, Northwestern State (55-7) in 2009 and Southern (55-3) in 2008. Prior to Saturday night, Houston had not lost a home opener since 2002.
Â» Six Houston players recorded their first career starts, four on offense and two on defense. Ralph Oragwu, Deontay Greenberry, Daniel Spencer and Chance Blackmon on offense, while Everett Daniels and Chris Cermin made the start on defense.
Â» Kicker Matt Hogan tallied his second career 50-yard field goal to put Houston on the board first in the opening quarter. Hogan became just third player in school history to record two 50-yard field goals in his career. With his 37-yard field goal in the third quarter, Hogan notched his 14th-career game with two or more field goals made.

TOP 10 CROWDS AT ROBERTSON
1.	32,413	vs. Southern Miss	12/3/11
2.	32,207	vs. SMU	11/19/11
	32,207	vs. Texas State	9/1/12
4.	32,119	vs. UTEP	9/10/10
	32,119	vs. Texas State	9/4/10
6.	32,114	vs. Texas Tech	9/26/09
	32,112	vs. Rice	10/27/11
8.	32,107	vs. Marshall	10/22/11
9.	32,067	vs. Mississippi State	10/9/10
10.	32,009	vs. Tulane	9/25/10

FINAL YEAR AT ROBERTSON

Â» The 2012 season marks the final year of Robertson Stadium as the 70-year old facility will be torn down following the conclusion of the season. Houston will return to a new on-campus stadium in 2014.
Â» Nine of the top 10 Roberston Stadium crowds have come in the last three seasons (2010, 2011, 2012) with four coming in 2011.
Â» Houston set an attendance record of 32,413 in last year's Conference USA Championship against Southern Miss on Dec. 3.
Â» With 32,207 fans at last week's home opener, Houston tied its regular-season attendance mark set last season against SMU.
Â» Saturday's attendance also broke the previous record for a home opener at Robertson Stadium, eclipising the 32,119 mark from the 2010 home opener also against Texas State.

HEAD COACH Tony Levine

Â» Houston opened a new era on Dec. 22, 2011, when Tony Levine was named the 13th coach in program history. Levine quickly made his mark on the Houston program by defeating #24/23 Penn State, 30-14, in the TicketCity Bowl.
Â» Levine is the first UH head coach to open his career with a win vs. a nationally-ranked opponent since Harold Lahar in 1957.
Â» The TicketCity Bowl victory marked the eighth time in Houston history that a head coach has won his opening game at the school.

TOP 10 HOUSTON SENIOR CLASSES (By Victories)
1.	36	2008-11
	36	2006-09
	36	1976-79
4.	34	1978-81
	34	1971-74
	34	1970-73
7.	33	1977-80
8.	32	Five teams tied
...
18.	28	2009-12
TOP 10 HOUSTON SENIOR CLASSES (By Winning Percentage)
1.	.766	1976-79 (36-11)
2.	.756	1966-69 (30-9-2)
3.	.750	1970-73 (34-11-1)
	.750	1968-71 (32-10-2)
5.	.745	1971-74 (34-11-2)
6.	.738	1967-70 (30-10-2)
7.	.722	1987-90 (32-12-1)
	.722	1969-72 (32-12-1)
9.	.719	1978-81 (34-13-1)
10.	.711	1988-91 (32-13)

SENIOR CLASS EYEING VICTORY RECORD

Â» The 2012 senior class enters the fall just nine victories away from capturing the record for the most wins by a single class in a four-year period at the University of Houston. With 28 wins, Houston's senior class of 27 currently sits 18th on the class wins chart, just four away from tying for eighth.
Â» Last year's 2011 senior class is one of three classes in Houston history to win a program-record 36 games, joining the 2009 senior class and the 1979 senior class in accomplishing the feat.
Â» The 1979 senior class also owns the progam's top winning percentage, .766, with a four-year record of 36-11.
Â» The 2012 senior class currently owns a winning percentage of .683 with a record of 28-13.

ON THE OFFENSIVE

Â» No team in college football has racked up more offensive yards over the last six seasons than Houston.

BOUNCING BACK

Â» In 67 years of football, Houston is now 34-31-2 in its season openers after its loss to Texas State. In its 31 losses, Houston has bounced back with a win in the season's second game 13 times, the last coming in 2007 after Houston fell at Oregon (48-27) before claiming a 34-10 win over Tulane.
Â» With back-to-back home games to open the season, Houston opens the season with two straight home games for the 12th time in program history.

CHANGES IN OFFENSIVE STAFF

Â» Houston head coach Tony Levine announced Monday that offensive coordinator Mike Nesbitt has resigned and assistant coach Travis Bush will take over play-calling duties while also handling coaching the quarterback position for the program.
Â» With the switch, Director of Player Personnel Ken McClintock will assume Bush's role of coaching running backs.
Â» Travis Bush has four years of experience as an offensive coordinator on the collegiate level, most recently spending a year as the OC at UT-San Antonio after spending three seasons as co-offensive coordinator at Texas State. In his final season at Texas State, the Bobcats finished the season No. 8 in passing offense while his quarterback Bradley George was named the Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Year.
Â» Offensive line coach Lee Hays adds six years experience as an offensive coordinator with stints at Tarleton (2011), Baylor (2006-07) and West Texas A&M (2003-05). Hays also has experience at Houston, having spent the 2010 season as the program's assistant offensive line coach. His final West Texas A&M squad led the FCS level in passing offense before his offenses at Baylor broke several program records.

THE BRICK SQUAD

Â» Self nicknamed "The Brick Squad", the Houston offensive line returns four of five starters from the 2011 squad. Senior Jacolby Ashworth, junior Ty Cloud, junior Kevin Forsch and sophomore Rowdy Harper started all 14 games for Houston last season. Combined the group owns 76 career starts. The group lost just starting center Chris Thompson from 2011.
Â» The line was shuffled a bit Saturday as Forsch slid over from right guard to replace Thompson. Junior Ralph Oragwu made his first career start at right tackle while Rowdy Harper made the switch from right to left tackle. Jacolby Ashworth started at left guard for Houston.
Â» Across the line, the group weighs an average of 312 pounds and stands at an average height of 6-4. Harper leads the group of five at 6-6 while Cloud leads on the scale at 335 pounds.
Â» Ashworth leads all Houston offensive players with 30 career starts and a streak of 22 consecutive starts. The Lombardi Award watch list candidate has the versatility to play both tackle, he was the team's left tackle in 2011 before switching to right guard this season.
Â» Harper, a freshman All-American in 2011, started all 14 games last season at right tackle before swinging to left tackle this season.
Â» The 2011 line ranked fifth nationally allowing just 3.86 tackles for loss per game while giving up just 19 sacks. Texas State managed two sacks in the opening week.

PACKING HIS OWN SHOES

Â» Houston head coach Tony Levine has often said that Case Keenum took his shoes with him when he left the Houston program and that David Piland doesn't have to fill those shoes. A quick look in the Houston locker room confirmed Levine's statement.
Â» The sophomore is actually in his third year with the Houston program. Piland started eight games as a true freshman in 2010 after Keenum and Cotton Turner went down with injuries. Piland threw for 2,641 yards with 24 touchdowns and 14 interceptions while leading Conference USA with 316.5 passing yards per game.
Â» Piland opened his career with 301 yards against Mississippi State before eclipsing the 300-yard mark three more times with games against UCF (334), Southern Miss (467) and Texas Tech (441).
Â» After Keenum was granted a sixth year of eligibility in 2011, Piland redshirted his second season on campus to save a year of eligibility.
Â» Piland had a career-high five rushing attempts Saturday night against Texas State, finishing with 11 net rushing yards including a career-long 15-yard run.
Â» Passing, Piland opened the season with a 17 of 44 effort for 211 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

NCAA ACTIVE CAREER RECEPTIONS (RBs)
1.	122	Charles Sims, Jr.	Houston
2.	81	Perry Jones, Sr.	Virginia
3.	80	Joseph Randle, Jr.	Oklahoma State
4.	75	James Washington, Sr.	NC State
5.	57	Cameron Marshall, Sr.	Arizona St.

CHARLES IN CHARGE

Â» After splitting carries with Michael Hayes and Bryce Beall in 2011, junior running back Charles Sims is ready to shoulder the load in 2012. Named to Conference USA's first team last season, Sims led Houston with 821 yards on 110 carries for an average carry of 7.5 yards.
Â» Sims leads all running backs nationally with 122 career receptions, 41 more than his closest competitor. The versatile back has mutliple receptions in 21 of his last 22 games. The junior needs just 36 receptions to break into Houston's top-10 career receptions chart. Sims had 70 receptions in 2009 and 51 in 2011.
Â» Sims has 11 career games with at least five receptions coming out of the backfield including 10 receptions vs. Southern Miss in last year's Conference USA Championship.
Â» Carrying the ball, Sims has 11 career games with at least 10 carries and three career 100-yard rushing games including 207 yards against Tulane last season on just 10 carries. Sims' effort against the Green Wave set a Houston program record with an average of 20.7 yards per carry, topping the previous mark of 19.9 set by Donn Hargrove in 1953.
Â» In 2011, Sims ranked No. 4 nationally in yards per carry (7.5) and his 51 receptions ranked No. 2 nationally among running backs.

A WHOLE CAST OF CHARACTERS

Â» With five of the top six receivers from the 2011 Houston squad graduating, an array of receivers have been given the opportunity to replace the 354 receptions, 4,839 yards and 44 receiving touchdowns that the five accounted for in 2011.
Â» Running back Charles Sims actually led all returning players with 51 receptions for 575 yards and four touchdowns last season. Ronnie Williams led all returning wide receivers with 16 catches for 138 yards and one touchdown.
Â» The 11 returning players who recorded a catch in 2011 combined for a total of 125 receptions for 1,462 yards and 10 touchdowns last season.
Â» Levine's first signing class included five players at the wide receiver position: Junior college transfer Xavier Maxwell and freshmen Deontay Greenberry, Larry McDuffey, Devin Parks and Andrew Rodriguez.
Â» Eight different players recorded a reception in Houston's opening game, six of which were receivers while Sims and Kenneth Farrow each hauled in a pass from the backfield. Daniel Spencer led all players with a career-high six receptions for 49 yards. McDuffey led Houston in receiving yards with two receptions for 73 yards including a 64-yard catch-and-run for Houston's lone touchdown of the night.

BEST HANDS IN THE LAND

Â» He may play on the defensive side of the ball but linebacker Phillip Steward claims to have the best hands on the team. If last year's defensive performance is any indication, the senior may be telling the truth as Steward finished the year with six interceptions, leading all linebackers nationally.
Â» Steward's six interceptions was 11th nationally regardless of position as he helped the Houston defense to a total of 21 interceptions, a number that led the Conference USA and was third nationally.
Â» Of the nine players accounting for the 21 interceptions in 2011, seven who combined for 17 pick offs return in 2012.
Â» One of two defensive captains alongside D.J. Hayden, Steward leads all Houston players with 35 career starts, starting every game since the sixth matchup of the 2009 season.

MAKING THE SWITCH FROM 3-4 TO 4-3

Â» With 16 defensive players accounting for 156 career starts, the Houston defense will not have a lack of experience as it switches from a 3-4 to a 4-3 defense under defensive coordinator Jamie Bryant in 2012.
Â» Last season the Houston defense ranked 12th nationally in pass efficiency defense in 2011. With opposing passers holding an efficiency rating of 111.75, the defense was third in Conference USA in the category.
Â» The defense also ranked third in the conference in scoring defense in giving up just 22.4 points per game.

TACKLING MACHINES

Â» With the defense on the field 43:09 of Houston's season-opening game against Texas State, defenders were given plenty of opportunity to rack up some numbers and several did so as four Cougars racked up double-digit tackles.
Â» Derrick Mathews and Phillip Steward each collected a team-high 14 tackles. Both hold career bests of 16 tackles.
Â» For Steward, Saturday's effort marked his eighth career game with at least 10 tackles while it was the third of Mathews' career.
Â» In his first career start and first action as a scholarship player, former walk-on Chris Cermin was second on the team with a career-high 13 tackles against Texas State. Entering Saturday night's match up, Cermin had just five career tackles.
Â» All three starting linebackers against Texas State finished with double-digit tackles as middle linebacker Everett Daniels recorded a career-high 10 stops.

NCAA ACTIVE CAREER EXTRA POINTS
1.	184	Matt Hogan, Sr.	Houston
2.	146	Dustin Hopkins, Sr.	Florida State
3.	131	Brandon McManus, Sr.	Temple
4.	125	Matt Nelson, Sr.	Louisiana Tech
NCAA ACTIVE CAREER SCORING
1.	372	Montee Ball, Sr., RB	Wisconsin
2.	341	Dustin Hopkins, Sr., K,	Florida State
3.	307	Matt Hogan, Sr., K	Houston
4.	297	Matt Weller, Sr., K	Ohio

EXTRA POINTS FOR HOGAN

Â» Houston senior kicker Matt Hogan enters his final year with the program as one of its most prolific scorers. The Keller, Texas, has a chance to become just the second player in program history to lead the team in scoring for three straight years. The only player to accomplish the feat? Kicker Ken Hebert from 1965-67.
Â» With 307 career points, Hogan currently sits second on the Houston career scoring chart behind the 416 points from former kicker Roman Anderson (1988-91).
Â» Hogan is also second on the Houston career chart for extra points with 184, behind Anderson's 213.
Â» On the program's career field goal chart, Hogan's 41 three-pointers are currently tied for second with Mike Clendenen (1981-84) behind Anderson's record of 70.
Â» Hogan leads all active kickers nationally with his 184 extra points.
Â» The senior is third nationally among all positions with 307 career points trailing Wisconsin running back Montee Ball (372) and Florida State kicker Dustin Hopkins (341).
Â» Hogan finished 2011 10th nationally among all positions with 130 points off 91 extra points and 13 field goals.
Â» The 130 points from Hogan were just one point away from tying the Houston single-season kick scoring record set by Anderson in 1989. Manny Hazard holds the Houston single-season scoring record with 134 points off 22 touchdowns and one two-point conversion in 1989.
Â» Hogan set the NCAA record for consecutive extra points made in a season in 2011 with 78 straight PATs. Hogan made every attempt in the season's first 11 games before recording his only miss of the season against Tulsa in the season's 12th game.

THE OTHER FOOT

Â» Helping to form of the nation's top kicking duos, junior Richie Leone will handle Houston's punting duties for the third consecutive year. The 2011 Ray Guy Award semifinalist, Leone had 12 punts over 50 yards and 15 punts downed inside the 20-yard line in 2011.
Â» Leone enters the season ranked sixth on Houston's career punting average. Through two years, Leone owns an average of 41.2 yards per punt with 86 punts for 3,547 yards.
Â» This season Leone has six punts with two longer than 50 yards including a 55-yarder against Texas State. Leone placed one punt against the Bobcats inside the 20 as he finished the night with an average of 47.2 yards per punt.
Â» Leone will also once again handle kickoff duties for Houston. Leone has 98 career kickoffs for 6,288 yards, an average of 64.2 yards per kick.
Â» Leone faces a stiff test on Saturday as he squares off against the 2011 Ray Guy Award winner in Louisiana Tech's Ryan Allen.

PRESEASON WATCH LISTS

Â« OL Jacolby Ashworth: Lombardi Award
Conference USA: DE Jamie Collins, Southern Miss; LB Jeremy Grove, ECU; DE Margus Hunt, SMU; LB Trent Mackey, Tulane; LB Taylor Reed, SMU; TE Luke Wilson, Rice.

Â« DB D.J. Hayden: Jim Thorpe Award
Conference USA: S Kemal Ishmael, UCF; S Dexter McCoil, Tulsa; CB Deron Wilson, Southern Miss.

Â« P Richie Leone: Ray Guy Award
Conference USA: P Ian Campbell, UTEP.

Â« RB Charles Sims: Walter Camp Award
Conference USA: RB Zach Line, SMU.

Â« RB Charles Sims: Maxwell Award
Conference USA: RB Zach Line, SMU.

NEW RETURNERS WANT SAME RESULT

Â» Much like at wide receiver, Tony Levine and special teams coordinator Jamie Christian will let an array of players audition for the punt and kick returner positions vacated by graduation from the 2011 team.
Â» Combine the special teams background of Levine, who has 13 special teams touchdown as the unit's coordinator at Houston, and Christian, whose Arizona State's special teams squad picked up seven return scores over the last two seasons, and hopes are high for Houston's return game.
Â» Former Houston standout Patrick Edwards accounted for the majority of Houston punt returns in 2011 while classmate Tyron Carrier took back 30 of Houston's 41 kickoff returns last season. Six players accounting for eight kickoff returns totaling 105 yards return this season.
Â» Three different players accounted for special teams returns in the season opener against Texas State. Dewayne Peace took Houston's lone returnable punt back four yards. Ryan Jackson had two kickoff returns for 58 yards while Jeffrey Lewis took one kickoff return back 15 yards.

GET IT TO YOU IN A SNAP

Â» Senior Brandon Hartson returns for his fourth season as Houston's long snapper. The Fairfield, Texas, native did not have an errant snap the entire 2011 season which included 17 field goals, 51 punts and 92 PATs.
Â» Hartson had nine snaps against Texas State all on target.

SWINGING THE FIELD

Information on returns during the Tony Levine era at Houston ...
Â» Kickoff Returns -- 87 returns of 25 yards or more with eight touchdowns.
Â» Punt Returns -- 17 returns of 15 or more yards with three touchdowns.
Â» Interception Returns -- 27 returns of 10 or more yards with eight touchdowns.
Â» Fumble Returns -- three returns of 15 or more yards with one touchdown.

WALKING ON

Â» On the day of their final collegiate season opener, Houston head coach Tony Levine announced four senior walk-ons have been placed on scholarship last Saturday. Ameen Behbahani, Chris Cermin, Crawford Jones and Braxton Welford all earned the honor after spending their previous seasons as walk-ons for the Houston program.
Â» The walk-on program is critical for any college football team and Levine has recognized walk-on talent enough to award 17 scholarships in the past five years.