Houston Football: 5 reasons why Cougars will struggle in 2017
By Zach Bigalke
2. Cougars are probably falling short in AAC West once again
Honestly, though, there probably won’t be any debate among the College Football Playoff selection committee regarding Houston. That’s because the Cougars likely won’t even win their division, must less the American Athletic Conference championship.
The same thing happened last season. Houston was perfectly capable of taking down Power Five teams like Oklahoma and Louisville. Their defense stymied potent attacks in prime-time opportunities, but turned around and fell flat against conference foes. The loss to Navy might not have been detrimental to Houston’s hopes in 2016. But then the Cougars went and bombed against SMU and followed up their Louisville win with a shootout defeat at Memphis.
That meant that Navy, rather than the Cougars, hosted the second AAC championship game. Two landmark victories over formidable non-conference opponents were wasted. Unable to close the deal in league play, Houston dropped to third in the West. It wasn’t quite as heartbreaking as 2011, but it was a similar opportunity lost.
Unfortunately for Cougars fans, that is likely going to happen once again in 2017. While they will easily take down the Wildcats and Red Raiders, they will struggle with teams like South Florida and Memphis. The result will be another season with a gaudy win total but no real hardware to show for the effort.