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Houston looking to snap pair of losing streaks

Dec 28, 2007 - 11:23 AM TCU (7-5) vs. Houston (8-4) 8:00 pm EST Texas Bowl December 28

HOUSTON (Ticker) -- Houston will be looking to end a pair of long losing streaks when it takes on former Conference USA rival TCU in the Texas Bowl on Friday.

The Cougars (8-4) have lost seven consecutive bowl games and seven straight to the Horned Frogs, who departed Conference USA for the Mountain West Conference in 2005.

Houston has not won a bowl game since 1980, when it beat Navy, 35-0, in the now defunct Garden State Bowl. Last season, the Cougars fell to South Carolina, 44-36, in the Liberty Bowl.

Assistant Chris Thurmond will serve as the Cougars' interim coach after Art Briles took the vacant Baylor job after five seasons at Houston.

TCU (7-5) has won its last two bowl appearances, including a 37-7 victory over Northern Illinois in last year's Poinsettia Bowl.

Despite its seven-game losing streak to TCU, Houston still leads the series, 13-11. In the last meeting, TCU posted a 34-27 win in 2004.

The Cougars shared the Conference USA West Division title this year with Tulsa but lost the tiebreaker to the Golden Hurricane.

Houston finished third in the conference in scoring, averaging 36.3 points per game and second in rushing behind Anthony Aldridge, the league's third-leading rusher, who averaged 130 yards per game.

The Cougars have posted consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 1989-90.

TCU finished fifth in the Mountain West but closed the regular season with wins over Nevada-Las Vegas and San Diego State.

In the victory over San Diego State, the Horned Frogs ran an amazing 111 plays as Joseph Turner rushed for a career-high 226 yards and four touchdowns. Turner finished the regular season with a team-high 587 rushing yards.

The Horned Frogs will be making their ninth bowl appearance in the last 10 seasons, including their sixth trip in seven years under coach Gary Patterson.