Thursday night cat fight pits Houston against BYU

Sep 10, 2014 - 4:34 PM Provo, UT (SportsNetwork.com) - Playing the first of three straight home games, the 25th-ranked BYU Cougars entertain the Cougars of Houston on Thursday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium

BYU, which has matchups against both Virginia and Utah State at home in the coming weeks before hitting the road again the second week of October, is back in the Top-25 for the first time since Sept. 9, 2012. Last season, the Cougars lost two of their first three games to Virginia and Utah, but just as they did a year ago when they defeated Texas (40-21), the squad took down the Longhorns last weekend even more convincingly, 41-7.

Now 4-1 all-time against Texas, BYU scored in all four quarters versus the Longhorns, which means coach Bronco Mendenhall is now 41-4 when his Cougars are able to get on the scoreboard in all four periods.

As for Houston, which is now playing in TDECU Stadium on the former site of Robertson Stadium, the team began 2014 with a disappointing 27-7 setback to Texas-San Antonio late last month. Playing four of their first five games of the season in their new building, the Cougars were able to balance the ledger with a 47-0 thumping of Grambling State last Saturday, marking the 38th shutout in program history and the second in the last four games under coach Tony Levine.

BYU won the only previous meeting between the squads last season by a narrow 47-46 final on the road in Houston. In that contest, the teams combined to score 45 points in the first quarter and 72 by intermission, with BYU quarterback Taysom Hill finding Skyler Ridley for an 11-yard TD strike with just over one minute remaining in regulation to give the visitors the victory.

Hill, who finished with 417 yards and four touchdowns through the air and added another game-high 128 yards rushing, was intercepted three times and suffered eight sacks, with Houston's Derrick Mathews posting three sacks and an interception return for a touchdown for the hosts.

BYU rattled off a staggering 115 plays against Houston last season, something that very few defenses are prepared to handle.

"Going against our offense in the fall and everyday in practice keeps us with the up tempo," Mathews said after the game last year. "As far as the 100 plays, they had a fast tempo and we had to come out there and try to control it the best we can."

After scoring 24 points in the second quarter and 34 in the first half against the Tigers in front of more than 30,000 fans, Houston called off the dogs in the second half. The rushing attack accounted for 275 yards and three touchdowns, with Kenneth Farrow putting up 130 yards and a score, his total easily doubling what Grambling was able to produce on the ground (63 net yards on 39 attempts).

Greg Ward was responsible for one rushing TD and one score through the air, not to mention tossing an incomplete pass along the way.

Quarterback John O'Korn converted 14-of-24 passes for 200 yards and a TD, while Deontay Greenberry reeled in five balls for a game-high 110 yards.

Defensively, Earl Foster had just a single tackle, yet was credited with a stop for loss, a forced fumble and an interception that he returned 24 yards. Vincent Hall had a pair of fumble recoveries, one of those in the end zone for the final TD of the game for the Cougars. In all, Houston forced six turnovers.

Houston gave up just 238 yards of total offense to the Tigers, including only 175 yards through the air, which is certainly a positive for a squad that was ranked 108th in the nation a season ago with 266.8 ypg permitted. Another positive for the unit is the number of turnovers forced because the Cougars set the bar rather high for themselves in 2013 when they paced all of the Football Bowl Subdivision with a turnover margin of 1.92 per outing.

After ranking 115th in the country in penalty yards a season ago, averaging 67.77 per game, Houston appears to be moving in the right direction in that department with only 14 flags for a combined 77 yards in the first two games. The same cannot be said for the opposition though, which has been hit with 29 infractions for a staggering 262 yards already.

On offense, Houston has to be concerned with O'Korn somewhat, with the signal caller having tossed four interceptions and just a single TD in two outings. Greenberry has accounted for nearly half of the team's 436 receiving yards with 11 catches for 206 yards, but he has yet to land in the end zone.

As for the other Cougars in this conversation, they saw Hill complete 18-of-27 passes for 181 yards versus Texas last week, but he was picked off once and sacked six times. The quarterback lost 35 yards on those tackles behind the line of scrimmage, yet still finished with a game-high 99 rushing yards and scored three times for the visitors.

Adam Hine was credited with four carries for another 29 yards and two TDs as the group ran for 248 yards and five scores overall, compared to only 82 yards on 35 attempts for the Longhorns who were limited to 258 yards of total offense.

"Our team did what we had to do to win the football game," Mendenhall noted. "I think we played so well in so many phases. Ultimately Taysom Hill is a phenomenal player. He made a lot of great decisions, but there are just some sheer athleticism things that aren't coachable. He is just more poised than he was a year ago. He's better at leadership and the game is slowing down for him. His throwing the ball is more accurate."

An incredible asset Hill, who was named the Offensive Player of the Week among the FBS Independents for the second time in as many weeks, has now completed 73.0 percent of his attempts through two games, leading to 244.5 ypg and a total of three touchdowns. Hill is also tops in the rushing department with another 196 yards, and all but two of his team's seven rushing scores thus far.

Last season, Hill was one of two players to produce more than 1,200 yards on the ground for the Cougars, leading the way with 1,344 yards and 10 TDs. When using his arm, Hill converted just 53.9 percent of his attempts for 226.0 ypg and while he had an efficiency rating of 118.15, Hill still had just 19 TDs against 14 interceptions.

As someone who took more than a few gambles last season, Hill was still able to guide BYU to 493.6 ypg to rank 14th in the country.

Unfortunately, the defense for the Cougars took a serious hit after the departure of Kyle Van Noy who seemed to be in on almost every play when he was on the field. In 2013, BYU ranked 16th in the country with a 113.22 pass efficiency defense, and that figure will be difficult to duplicate this time around.