Houston Football: 5 reasons why Cougars will struggle in 2017

5. Tom Herman is gone to Austin and we’ve seen this script before

Do you remember 2011? Houston fans certainly do, and those memories are inevitably bittersweet. The Cougars raced to a 12-0 record to start the season. But Southern Miss toppled Houston at Robertson Stadium in the C-USA championship game, and head coach Kevin Sumlin left to take over at Texas A&M.

Into the interim role stepped Tony Levine, the Cougars special teams coordinator. The interim tag was removed even before he led Houston to a TicketCity Bowl win over Penn State. Levine went 5-7 the following year once Case Keenum had exhausted his eligibility. The Cougars went to bowl games the following two years, but Levine had to be let go for Tom Herman to be hired.

That script could very well play out again. Tom Herman parlayed the Houston gig into a call from Texas, just as Sumlin used the Cougars as a springboard five years earlier. The interim coach was promoted to the full-time job before the team even played its bowl game. And, in both cases, all that is left for Cougars fans is to hope that continuity comes in the form of that link to the previous staff.

Results varied that first time around. And, it must be noted, Levine helped transition the Cougars from C-USA to the American. Applewhite has far fewer ancillary issues to address, though expectations are just as high this time around. Anything less than another big-time bowl appearance would stink, especially since Herman pulled off the feat in his first year as a head coach.