POSTCAST: Disastrous Start To The Season For The Houston Cougars Against UNLV

[Music] you are locked on Houston Cougars postcast part of locked on Sports Houston on the locked on podcast Network your team every day well it's the very first locked on cougs postcast here on the locked on Sports Houston page and oh boy do we have a disaster to talk about tonight I am Michael Connor the host of the locked on Sports Houston page and tonight I'm joined by the host of locked on Cooks postcast Parker answorth as we have Parker an absolutely disastrous start to the season to talk about for the cougs tonight real quick I want to remind you guys that Five Five Hour Energy fixes tired fast with zero sugar and convenient portable size it's the perfect pickme up for getting stuff done go to 5our energy.com use promo code locked on CFB to receive 20% off your order this offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with any other promotions go to five hour energy.com today so Parker hi we did the show the other night on your uh your channel your YouTube channel and um I spit I felt like a lot of optimism for the 2024 Houston Cougars football season and I'm gonna tell you and I were texting during the game tonight and I think they kicked it out of me by halftime how about you halim feels about right the truth is as I probably talked myself into that first drive of the third quarter you know like the first drive of the third quarter you're like oh we can flip this all around right here this is where get started and then they moved backwards on all three plays and it got really bad really fast um it was a rough one to say the least start the uh the start of the Willie Fritz era here in Houston um I I have to say I knew there was a rebuild coming Michael but I didn't know it was going to be like this I mean what are they gonna do from the from the standpoint the biggest glaring issue I know you saw it tonight we all saw it they can't block anybody I know that you said that like the offensive Line's bad you're like dude it's it's just like they're just like let them run right by what is this what are they doing it was it was pretty bad um it so trying to think of like ways to be respectful about because truthfully I think that like they had a couple transfers in the center is a sophomore uh who is highly touted but is just a sophomore uh the truth is a lot of the guys that were playing this year were last year's backups and that doesn't make for good football apparently I got a different question Michael because we have a full season to play yeah What offense can you run where you don't block people I think we should investigate that I'm honestly like wondering with the triple option be a better be a better choice for them like you know just run out to the right and just kind of send everybody in One Direction the bilman answer going to hey if we can't block them let's just not it's like look they even like one of the picks that Donovan Smith threw tonight I you you couldn't even get the ball like you can't even run plays that are sideways you're you know your your horizontal play because he threw he threw the ball where it gets tipped up there you go the like it's just well and so there were I want to ask you about Donnie because um people act like I'm way too positive about him by saying he's just kind of you know middle of the road maybe slightly above average even he's not a world beater or anything like that but I I think he gets a lot of the the burden because of the tetina being great um there I still think the offensive Line's the biggest issue and I'm sure we'll get to the fact that at some point we got to talk about the fact that the third string quarterback's only threw a touchdown um but did you watch Donovan Smith tonight be like this guy can't do it because I don't think I got there no I don't I don't think he had any time to do anything like you just kept watching him and he's just you know I I wish he would probably use his instincts a little bit more if he has those instincts to get out and run like I think we talked about that the other night you I think you you said you expected him to run a little bit more last year than he did and tonight I mean what was his numbers because of the sacks and everything drive you way down he was only 12 carries for negative 24 yards that was pretty good pretty good in the Box Score but no I'm am I going to like completely right him off do I think he's the world's greatest quarterback no but like you can't even judge a player you could judge his his instincts on getting out of pressure and whatnot but I don't I don't think that you can judge completely on his throwing ability when he's literally fighting for his life all the time yeah I think that's kind of where I'm at too is that last year they had an offense with no offensive coordinator because they tried this like triumverate thing of three people kind of sharing it that clearly didn't work yeah yeah you know it's the old if you don't have one two quarterbacks if you don't have one you know if you don't have one off scor so let's try three um and then this year it looks like he I mean at least game one he has no time to throw I don't know again obviously like could he have maybe not thrown the ball that the defensive lineman or whatever that was that a linebacker blitzing whatever that was the pick six sure could he put that in the dirt I I guess but he was I mean undoubtedly frazzled razzled all that if you just as a human being if you're getting that much pressure all game like you're going to make a couple bad decisions CU you feel like the walls are caving in around you right like that just feels natural yeah and you know there were still some throws that he did make that it was like I don't know about those and like you said some of them you just got to what was the big play they had down the sideline there the big chunk play um that he you know fitted into a tight window there that one's like oh okay you know he he had Muse had come all the way across the field the short guy transferred him from Georgia um and frankly I thought Muse at time s looked all right um that was one of the few big plays that didn't get called back for holding or anything honestly we talk about the penalties in this game oh man both sides yeah yeah that was a rough game uh I've got down here on my stat sh Houston had 10 penalties for 74 yards less than optimal less than optimal I was trying to pull up six for yeah six for 48 for UNLV 10 for 74 for you AG that's just it looked like a first game I will say that you know yeah there's been some of these games this weekend that haven't been that bad but it felt like a first game of the season like the the entire time the entire first game of a career it felt like for a lot of people honestly I mean um and look I I should stress because I talked to some UNLV folks who at the week on on lock on cougs we need to apologize to that guy that we were talking about the other night that you had on who was like way optimistic and you're like I don't know and apparently he was right they really do think though that they're going to be a playoff team uh for folks that are new to the 12 team playoff there is a guaranteed group of five spot the highest ranked group of five team gets in and UNLV is like why not us about that spot and you know I guess an optimistic view would be like oh that's why that they're just they're a playoff team right that's that's why they beat Houston it's a playoff team hey look at the end of the day Houston could end up playing like four playoff teams this year then right there you go just saying you're going play OU next weekend you're going to play a couple of Big 12 opponents than you played UNLV who else is UNLV schedule has pulled up I don't know about their I don't know about their chances of getting the playoff do you do you have any idea who their next who their best opponent is outside of U ofh um as far as power four school goes only because I have it pulled up already they got Kansas and Syracuse um Oregon State Oregon State I guess technically is are they in the are they in a conference still I don't even know what are they in I don't they used to be a good um I think the other team in their conference that would be good is Boise State right we're kind of used to Boise State being a pretty strong group of five teams so um you know I I can see after watching them play if that quarterback just got to campus in June why they feel like you know with some more time on task he'll be okay um but I I we'll talk about positive in a second because I'm going too far down that tangent Michael but I I feel like Houston's offense was its own problem a lot of the ways it couldn't block anybody couldn't block anybody at all and and they just could not move the football and then when they tried to like like you said a minute ago penalty after penalty as well which made it a huge problem this is the locked on cougs postcast here tonight Saturday night after the 27 to7 loss to UNLV I'm Michael Connor that's Parker answorth you hear him on the locked on cougs postcast it is a daily podcast that you guys should absolutely be checking out of course subscribing to the YouTube page as well let's talk about positives Park might have some positives I don't know if I have any positives we'll talk about them here in just a second on the locked on Cooks postcast right now though let's talk about Factor fuel up with factors no prep No Mess meals meet your Wellness goals thanks to the menu of Chef crafted meals with options like calorie smart Protein Plus and keto factors fresh never frozen meals are dietitian approved and ready to eat in just two minutes so no matter how busy you are you'll always have time to enjoy nutritious great tasting meals make today the day you Kickstart a new healthy routine what are you waiting for with 35 different meals and more than 60 add-ons to choose from every week you'll always have new 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every time or your money back because of eBay Motors you're burning rubber not cash with all the parts you need at the prices you want it's easy to make your car the VP and bring home huge wins keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusion Supply eBay guaranteed fit only available to us customers and normally I'd hit a transition there Forest Parker but my Great Mouse has gone away again I got to restart it it is the locked on cougs postcast this happened the other night when we're doing the show this is the beauty of a live show my mouse I've replaced the batteries now three times and it just keeps dying I I don't get it I think the Mouse is dead is the problem so I'm probably it's a lot like the Cougars tonight because you know what let's go right into positive talk transition transition they were they were I was coming into the season hoping to have optimism for them that this would be a fun season you know second season in the Big 12 new coach one that we can all get behind it seems like we talked about it the other night running that professional type of atmosphere program more mature like let's go let's do this thing he's had all the success in the world and tonight it was just felt like nothing was good so I ask you because you are the coug of the cougs what was positive about it was there anything positive in this game well I I will say um so like coming into the game I I was saying I thought Houston win something in the you know 30s I think I said between 31 and 35 I end up finishing about 35 to 28 obviously the offense did not go as planned but I would say that uh you know I was saying they scored about 28 they scored 27 and one of those touchdowns was Defensive I I feel like for a a high-powered offense and folks that don't watch unov much this is like no basketball and grass kind of stuff the go- go offense is just that it goes and goes right um I I do think that holding them to 20 offensive points is something worth mentioning um because that's kind of their bread and butter scoring a lot of points I thought AJ Hy looked all right on the defensive side he had five tackles a pick with a big return afterwards a couple of punishing hits on those tackles too um you know it's good to have good to have those kind of things to look on I thought um questions he might have had about some of those two-lane transfers that followed Willie frit stepping up to the big time like Keith Cooper and stuff like that like they looked every bit the part um and and correct me from Ron Michael because you've watched a lot of football in your life as well I don't think the I mean I guess mathematically I don't think the reason they lost this game is gave 27 points right like like there the issues to me felt offensive yeah for sure and so I guess that would be my positive is the defense am I off base there what are you drawing at no I I don't think you're wrong by any means look I mean it's not like and I don't know about you my box score I was going to have the the stats for the UNLV quarterback and now on ESPN's wonderful website it literally keeps saying there's no stats for any of the offensive players they've just removed it I don't I I don't think he threw for a lot in the game I knew the number earlier but I don't anymore again that game is gone I don't know what you're talking about that game never happen doesn't count um no I think you're right though like it never felt like at any point that it was UNLV just beating you down I will say one thing and I need to see what the exact number was at some point they it felt like for a while they had a little bit of an issue getting off the field defensively like they get to those third down spots I think early in the game like UNLV was like three of five on third downs and you know this like you can't get off the field on third down consistently then you're going to eventually give up some points like you're going to have some issues but I I would agree there you know what I I was I lied to you Parker I do have a positive tonight oh the Special Teams okay because they had a long punt return and they had a good kick return so you know what look at me I'm pulling together there you go get the punt return and the kick return I'll take it um other positive do we is this the part we talked about the third string quarterback um yeah absolutely UA now people last year were calling for UA to get more playing time because he came in at the end of the Sam Houston game in which Houston was on the other side of a blowout they won that one every loves the blowout quarterback man he lights it up threw big touchdown exactly he came in threw a big touchdown at the end of a blowout where Houston won the blowout and people got excited this game he comes in at the end of a blowout where Houston loses the blowout and throws a touchdown it was 27 to nothing at the time threw a touchdown to your guy actually we talked about him last time we talked Joseph manjack Y no gloves manjack and I you know manjack tonight by the way sorry I don't want to interrupt you no he he couldn't he couldn't catch a break he dropped one ball but the rest he couldn't catch a break um the is there just to squash it or if we get need to pump it up pump it up what are your thoughts on a third string quarterback coming in and throwing a touchdown in his lone Drive in the game do we need to make anything out of that I don't think he make anything out of it but I think you have to at least keep it in your mind you can't like ignore it given that you know you didn't get anything out of Donan Smith tonight and we talked about it I don't think that we either one of us wants to completely throw him away based off of what went out there tonight you know went on out there with him running for his life all over the place and at the end of the game like you know you he doesn't have a bunch of guys that are out there looking to head hunt I would assume they still want to make plays but like they're not going out there looking to you know crush the quarterback left and right the same way they were ear early in the game so you know I I I don't think you like go the crazy frenzy typical oh I love the backup quarterback on it but it's nice to see because if it do like how how okay there's my qu how long do you let Donovan Smith go if it stays like it did tonight how many games in before you say I have to make a change because obviously you're going to go to La there with the as the option that can throw the football here well cuz on Chris straight up didn't throw the football um I think it's interesting too because this is 100% a rebuild Even in our most optimistic positive spin today this is a rebuild just what step over your on right and Donovan Smith has 11 games left here right like do you at some point invest in a younger guy does it help your program to get a younger guy or in modern college football does it matter because you've got a freshman coming up that's you know the Carl kid is from richo high school and you've got uh a year behind him kesan Henderson's a top rated athlete or whatever and they say he could play quarterback and you've also got the transfer portal does any of it matter or do you start putting time and effort into a younger guy than Donovan because this season may be a wash faster than we realized I mean I think it's it's something that's worth thinking about you're right like you can't if you get to the point where it's like I I'm I don't want to be overly negative in our in our segment of positivity here but let's say they start off like 0 and four means rice oh God that's God Rice game I forgot the rice gamees there no you're not gonna start four there's no way there's no way one and three one and three one and three one and three you got to think about it though you have to at that point there's no way I I'm I'm curious with you do you think that the roster at all dictates or or screams that they should be looking you know simply when we're we're look at we're game one I'm asking you this question I'm sorry but like for the team next season is it a freshman that's coming in or do they need to be transfer portal Kings I'm C I really don't know which way they should go I have a name in mind for the portal but you know well I've been Shing yours because I've got one too um no I I honestly thought um even though Zeon Chris was known at Louisiana as a run guy transferred in to be the backup here um and you know presumably take the Reigns at some point I thought he' get to throw up pass yeah um and he he didn't to I don't remember and like you said the stats are there's something funky with the stats um I I really thought he throw at least one um I I think well I going sure hear your name I don't know if the deal you say on the count of three uh Florida imploded today and so oh did they they're gonna they' be firing Billy Napier this year well they'd be fine and then they have some five-star all everything kid uh from just outside of Houston that's a freshman on their roster and so I'm like you know do you tell that kid to come home do do you DJ lagway do you tell him to come home do something along those lines I don't know but you said you got a name who's your name this just because it's personal my stepmom is cousins with um her cousin's kid plays at Oregon his name's Austin novad there you go a Dripping Springs guy and he's stuck up there so I'm just saying bring him home there's a Texan up there just in Oregon just just hanging out he's a four-star recruit he picked Baylor over Oregon and he sat behind Bo Knicks last year and he's gonna sit again this year or not Bo yeah B Knicks I don't know I was yeah doubting that so hey look we're just throwing it out there we're just throwing names out there you know the lock on C show and the locked on C's postcast we're just G to put together an ideal nil package to get these guys home I hear you're good for it oh definitely I'm loaded man loaded absolutely loaded uh let's talk about hey you want to talk about the the OU game sure okay why not let's talk about the OU game here in just a second the locked on Cook's postcast first though let me tell you about Five Hour Energy every time you know every once in a while you need a little bit energy whether it's that workout in the morning I always am up in the mornings getting my workout in some more morning as I wake up though and I'm still not feeling it I got to get myself a little energy boost and I do that with Five Hour Energy Zero sugar and a convenient portable size the perfect pickme up for getting stuff done the 5H Hour Energy website uh which you could go check out 5our energy.com they've got everything that you're looking for right there where you can even build your own options for a 12 or 24 pack you choose the flavors and it's delivered right to your door they've got flavors like water water yeah water no watermelon tropical burst grape Berry and more uh there's a flavor for everyone so you can try them all if you go to 5our energy.com that is the number five hour energy.com and get uh get some Five Hour Energy Products today you can use my promo code our promo code locked on CFB to receive 20% off your order this offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions this code is not good on subscription orders go to 5our energy.com today all right the locked on Cs postcast on a Saturday night thank you to everybody that stopped by um I know that we we had some people watching tonight for our very first locked on CS postcast uh Parker thank you for deciding you wanted to hang out with me tonight instead of you know sitting on your couch probably watching more college football or going to bed I should say because you know so before we get into next week's I guess here's our transition you mentioned watching college football on my screen right now I'm not paying much attention to it but Arizona state is on that's Big 12 Football next it is next week Houston plays Oklahoma and that's not Big 12 Football what what makes sense anymore what makes sense anymore it doesn't it doesn't make sense I haven't even scoured the rest of the Big 12 tonight um I had the A&M and another Dame game on one of my televisions uh that game's still being played by the way as we're doing this 1313 in the fourth quarter but neither team wants to play offense there you know maybe the cou should avoid getting a transfer portal player from that team from those teams I should say for offense yeah um but the bit the rest of the Big 12 is is there was there anything of note in the Big 12 today that I missed in my not checking the scores um it's not over yet but the Red Raiders are only up by three what a great Red Raider I am I haven't paid any they were barely beating abene Christian which is embarrassing ab's got the ball fourth and one 7 seconds I don't have it on but that's what the website says oh my God 4542 what are you doing B yeah BYU crushing Southern Illinois you mentioned the Arizona game Arizona State beaten Wyoming Penn State ended up beating West Virginia hey you could you could be in the battle with West Virginia for who finishes last just saying I wish we played West Virginia I think we'd beat them we beat them last year you could Oklahoma State beat South Dakota State Kansas State beat UT Martin Cincinnati Beat Townsen uh Iowa State took down North Dakota Bor took down Charlton State and then of course the U ofh UNLV man a lot of these teams they really scheduled hard for opening games this week in the Big 12 they kind of did yeah um you know Houston did that for this week and next week that's their that's their thought all right so let's talk about it real quick how bad is it going to be next week well here's a positive spin maybe Oklahoma scored all of their points against Temple this week uh they won 51 to three and now they have no no more points to score no more points to be scored in Norman this weekend none of them um so I gotta be honest I've been down on Oklahoma since the coaching change yeah um and I I am the same and I I I think they heard that or something like hey let's shut that that dude up um Jackson AR had four touchdowns in that game Young quarterback looked very impressive um I don't know Temple used team we used to play a lot and so I kind of was interested to see how that one turned out and it turned out that Oklahoma really really is a lot better than them uh did you seen that one I did not see I saw I saw an alert for it on the touchdowns but um no I did not watch any of I'm curious to see what the line looks like it could be ugly what was the line today on the temple game do you know it had to be at least I'd imagine it had but it had to be in the 20s had to be at least I can't imagine uvh isn't I bet I bet they're a 30-point underdog I mean um it certainly so here's the thing is like you think about like UNLV will beat someone in the ma in the uh Mountain West Conference by a similar score yeah um I would imagine Oklahoma and that Mountain West team would be a 30 or 40 point spread I I think Houston gets better over the course of the Year this year I don't I don't know why it would be any different as far as the spread goes next week I really don't U just pulling up the temple game real quick to see what the line on it was before the game started it was Oklahoma 43 and a half they covered man 43 and a half I got a bad story in Vegas back in the day when Oklahoma screwed me against Kansas screwed me on a screwed me on a three-leg parlay I was going to walk away with about $1,400 oh they need to beat Kansas by 36 what do you think they beat him by 35 35 of course 35 course I was a 21y old me and I was not happy here's the spin good teams win great teams cover Houston just got to keep it closer than 30 or whatever we're saying is Well Houston did not cover tonight I tell you that no they didn't um odds the odds makers took a beating on this one if people were betting it when I feel bad I had several people text me me what I thought um not people tied to Houston or whatever they texted me knowing that I would have been paying attention I was like oh I think they win I think it's you know two and a half points I think someone said they had three and a half points I was like you know three and a half it might be a field goal so I could see that but at two and a half you know why not my bad sorry don't s don't send Parker a bill don't do that no don't do that hey what's your uh what's your plan for the week on the locked on cougs post or uh podcast so people can be prepared for what you got ahead on the on the week ahead yeah so basketball season's no I'm joking we will do basketball at some point um we'll talk about Oklahoma um and I think what happens most weeks Michael is by Friday I've talked myself into Houston finding a way to win these games I do think Oklahoma's vulnerable I don't think Oklahoma is a juggernaut like they used to be um and I'm sure I'll talk through different reasons and ways that that happens I'm sure we'll have John or one of the two guys who locked on Sooners come on to at some point so we got a game to preview get to play in SEC Stadium kind of see what that that's all about weird to call that an SEC Stadium now and those kind of things you're doing postcast every day though Mike what are y'all doing I mean Astros the rest of the week what do youall got going on yeah Astros red hot at the moment next week's GNA be very busy over the weekend Astros play every day this week but Tuesday so we'll be with you a couple of Day games Monday Day game Labor Day uh Day game again on Thursday and then over the weekend they play the Diamondbacks and we we have the cougs as well against U ofh and then don't forget Sunday on the Channel first Houston Texans game of 2024 so I got a lot of games to react to I'm G be a very busy man a lot of reactions a lot of reaction reactions my head might explode just be honest it might explode it probably it would I'll tell you this it'll explode a you of H beats oh you next week let do it for a back on I'm back on let's do it let's do it for good reason positivity we're doing it thank you uh Parker for hanging out tonight I appreciate it man uh you guys make sure to go check out his podcast every single day locked on cougs go subscribe to his YouTube page as well uh you guys have a great rest of your Saturday night go watch some more late night college football and uh join me tomorrow after Astros and Royals on this channel locked on Sports Houston page for the locked on Astros postcast good night