Preview from Houston: UCLA vs UH

In the revving up for UCLA’s season opener with Houston on Saturday, we sat down with Houston Cougars blogger Dustin Rensink of SB Nation Houston for a bit of an inside scoop on the high flying Cougars.

Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images via Zimbio

Question: What makes this matchup different from last meeting with UCLA?

Dustin Rensink: To figure out what is going to be different, I would have to have a grip on what happened in the last meeting, and nearly a year later, I’m still not quite sure what happened in that game. There were some rumors that the Houston coaches were letting players take pictures outside of the Rose Bowl before the same, and asking them to raise their hands if UCLA recruited them (nobody’s hand went up) in an effort to make some sort of point – so did the coaches just totally over-hype the game? Was it just “one of those games” that every team has now and then, where nothing goes your way? Was UCLA just that much more physical on the lines, and did UCLA’s defense just figure out Houston’s spread attack? And how do you make sense of the fact that UCLA absolutely dominated the game (I was there, it was a butt-kicking), and yet, in an equal number of plays from scrimmage, the Bruins only out-gained the Cougars by five yards?

Ultimately, I don’t expect this year’s game to even remotely look like last year’s. No disrespect to the Bruins, who played a great game, but for whatever reason, Houston’s A-team just was not present in Pasadena. I also expect the weather to play a role in the game this time around. As someone who moved from Southern California to Houston, you simply can’t prepare for what it’s like to play football on a September afternoon in southeast Texas. It’s like playing on the sun. When Houston beat Texas Tech at home in 2009, it was pretty clear that by the end of the game, the Red Raiders were cramping up and generally struggling with the heat and humidity. Oh, and that game ended after midnight. The UCLA game starts at 2:30.

The return of halfback Charles Sims (1,457 yards of total offense as a true freshman in 2009, academic casualty in 2010) should be a major boon to the Cougar offense, as well.

But ultimately, none of it matters if Houston can’t improve its play in the trenches against the Bruins. On paper, the Cougars look about equal to last year’s team in terms of talent on both lines. If they can’t over-perform at least a little, we may just see 31-13 again.

RB Charles Sims returns after missing 2010.

Question: Is there a revenge factor at all for the Cougars, in looking towards the Bruins?

Dustin Rensink: Absolutely. I don’t know if anybody necessarily believes that UCLA was playing dirty, but when you lose your top two quarterbacks in a single game, you’re going to remember it the next time you play the team involved. Maybe a better word than revenge would be atonement. There’s a very strong desire among the team to prove that last year’s humiliating loss (and last year’s humiliating season) were a fluke.

Question: How prepared is the Cougar defense for another shot at the Pistol offense?

Dustin Rensink: Every year, the Cougar faithful asks itself if this is the year that the Cougars put together a respectable defense. As far as the UCLA game goes, it starts with Houston’s front seven. Both the defensive line and linebackers have a new positional coach this year, and will have to show improvement. The defensive line loses its most effective weapon from a year ago in Matangi Tonga, but gets Zeke Riser (starter as a true freshman) back after missing 2010 with an ACL tear, added a couple of big bodies in recruiting, and gains another year of experience for all of the youngsters who have been forced into action before they were ready.

The linebacking corps has a pair of stars in Marcus McGraw and Sammy Brown, but as a group, missed too many of the easy plays last year. With returning contributors like Phillip Steward and Efrem Oliphant, and a highly-touted JC transfer in Lloyd Allen, the linebackers definitely have the depth to be a strength for the Cougars.

But overall, will the front seven have enough size to prevent the Bruins from running the ball down their throats again? I could honestly see it going either way, but that will be the single biggest factor in the outcome of the game.

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