2023 Ultimate College Football Preview Houston

Welcome to the Ultimate College Football Preview for 2023. Every team in FBS Football will be covered in this daily blog release. All of your favorite teams from the ACC, AAC, Big 12, Big 10, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, PAC 12, SEC, Sun Belt & even every Independent. Think of these daily college football previews as a cheat sheet going into next year.

2022 Recap:

The Cougars had a decent season in 2022, going 8-5 and winning the Independence Bowl. Most would look at the for a Group of 5 team and consider that a winning season. Houston had bigger aspirations last year but when it came to play Big 12 teams they were 0-2. The loss to Tulsa, who was not a good team was bad for them as well. Houston’s Air Raid offense was ranked 17th last year in points per game scoring 36.1. Even when scoring that much it is hard to win when your defense is allowing 32.3 points per game, 112th in the all of college football. They were in a lot of high scoring shootouts it is hard to meet high expectation when it is always down to the last possession.

Head Coach:

One of the best and most respected offensive coaches in the country is Dana Holgorsen. He revamped West Virginia’s offense after Rich Rodriguez destroyed the program. Holgorsen turned the Mountaineers into a high octane offense that no one wanted to play. Coach Holgorsen was at WVU from 2011-2019 when he took the head job at Houston. Guess what? He has done the same thing for the Cougars on the offensive side of the ball. Every 3 or 4 years since becoming a head coach Holgorsen leads his teams to 10 win seasons and playing for conference title. The years in between he has his team right in the middle of the pack. That is exactly what you want to do while at a mid tier college football program. Holgorsen’s team’s are always right there even when rebuilding. If he can go middle of the pack in year one of the Big 12 it will be a success.

Key Players:

I use Ourlads for depth charts for all of these college football preview. If you look at Houston’s right now on 5/5, it is empty. I am not an insider to any of these team, just giving a brief preview of what to expect. Houston has a lot of postions to fill in fall camp. They are also replacing their start QB Clayton Tune who had a 67.3% completion percentage for 4,074 yards. Tune had 5 rushing touchdowns, 40 passing touchdowns and only 10 interceptions. That is a lot of production to replace for former Friday Night Tykes star and Redshirt Sophomore Lucas Coley. Coley a 3 or 4 start dual threat QB out of high school, depending on what recruiting service you look at has the skills to ball out. He may struggle year one, not because of him but there is not a lot of help on the offensive side of the ball. Houston only has 4 WR on the depth chart and only 2, Sam Brown and Joseph Manjack, caught passes last year. For defense just click the link for their depth chart. There is no free safety’s, nickelbacks, or right corners on the roster. It is a mess right now.

2023 Prediction:

I am not sure what this team is going to be this is a hard college football preview. I love and believe in Coach Holgorsen but the holes in the depth chart on both sides of the ball is crazy. Houston will fill them with the transfer portal and in fall camp but, I just don’t know the talent. Second, they are joining the Big 12 conference this year, a step up in weekly competition. They will go 3-0 in non-conference play, the teams are not that great, although UTSA could give them a game. Then it is all Big 12 football, so maybe 4-5 and that might be generous. If the Cougars make a bowl this coming year it will be a hell of a good season for Coach Holgorsen and the Houston Cougars.