American college football season
The 2018 Houston Cougars football team represented the University of Houston in the 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season . The Cougars played their home games at TDECU Stadium in Houston, Texas , and competed in the West Division of the American Athletic Conference . They were led by second-year head coach Major Applewhite . They finished the season 8–5, 5–3 in AAC play to finish in a three-way tie for the West Division championship. After tiebreakers, they did not represent the West Division in the AAC Championship Game . They were invited to the Armed Forces Bowl where they lost to Army by a score of 14–70, in the process tying records for the most points given up (70) and the largest margin-of-loss (56) in NCAA bowl game history.[1]
On December 30, Houston fired Applewhite after 2 seasons.[2]
Preseason [ edit ] Award watch lists [ edit ] Listed in the order that they were released
AAC media poll [ edit ] The AAC media poll was released on July 24, 2018, with the Cougars predicted to finish in second place in the AAC West Division.[13]
Media poll (West) Predicted finish Team Votes (1st place) 1 Memphis 171 (23) 2 Houston 146 (4) 3 Navy 129 (3) 4 SMU 72 5 Tulane 68 6 Tulsa 44
Schedule [ edit ] Date Time Opponent Site TV Result Attendance September 1 11:00 a.m. at Rice * CBSSN W 45–2726,390 September 8 11:00 a.m. Arizona * ABC/ESPN2 W 45–1832,534 September 15 3:00 p.m. at Texas Tech * FOX L 49–6353,484 September 22 7:00 p.m. Texas Southern * ESPN3 W 70–1429,970 7:00 p.m. Tulsa ESPN W 41–2629,823 October 13 6:00 p.m. at East Carolina CBSSN W 42–2029,851 October 20 2:30 p.m. at Navy CBSSN W 49–3633,924 October 27 2:30 p.m. No. 21 South Florida ABC/ESPN2 W 57–3631,631 November 3 6:00 p.m. at SMU ESPNU L 31–4523,654 November 10 6:00 p.m. Temple CBSSN L 49–5930,862 7:00 p.m. Tulane ESPN W 48–1724,209 11:00 a.m. at Memphis ABC L 31–5227,790 December 22 2:30 p.m. vs. Army * ESPN L 14–7044,738
Schedule Source: [14] Game summaries [ edit ] At Rice [ edit ] 1 2 3 4 Total Cougars 3 14 14 14 45 Owls 7 17 3 0 27
[15]
Arizona [ edit ] 1 2 3 4 Total Wildcats 0 0 10 8 18 Cougars 21 10 7 7 45
[16]
At Texas Tech [ edit ] 1 2 3 4 Total Cougars 21 7 14 7 49 Red Raiders 14 21 14 14 63
Texas Southern [ edit ] 1 2 3 4 Total Tigers 0 0 7 7 14 Cougars 14 28 7 21 70
1 2 3 4 Total Golden Hurricane 13 0 10 3 26 Cougars 7 10 0 24 41
At East Carolina [ edit ] 1 2 3 4 Total Cougars 14 7 7 14 42 Pirates 0 3 3 14 20
At Navy [ edit ] 1 2 3 4 Total Cougars 7 14 14 14 49 Midshipmen 10 14 0 12 36
South Florida [ edit ] 1 2 3 4 Total No. 21 Bulls 0 21 15 0 36 Cougars 14 14 15 14 57
1 2 3 4 Total No. 17 Cougars 0 14 3 14 31 Mustangs 10 21 7 7 45
1 2 3 4 Total Owls 14 14 21 10 59 Cougars 7 7 21 14 49
1 2 3 4 Total Green Wave 6 3 0 8 17 Cougars 14 17 10 7 48
At Memphis [ edit ] 1 2 3 4 Total Cougars 7 14 10 0 31 Tigers 3 14 14 21 52
Vs. Army (Armed Forces Bowl) [ edit ] 1 2 3 4 Total Cougars 0 7 0 7 14 No. 22 Black Knights 14 28 14 14 70
Players drafted into the NFL [ edit ] Rankings [ edit ] Ranking movementsLegend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking — = Not ranked RV = Received votes Week Poll Pre 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Final AP RV RV RV — — — — RV RV RV 17 RV — RV — — Coaches RV RV RV RV — — — RV RV RV 17 RV — — — CFP Not released — — — — — Not released
References [ edit ] ^ "Army West Point dominates en route to 70-14 victory" . Armed Forces Bowl . Retrieved December 28, 2018 . ^ Sallee, Barrett. "Houston fires coach Major Applewhite after just two seasons with the Cougars" . cbssports.com . Retrieved December 30, 2018 . ^ "2018 Watch List | Lott IMPACT Trophy | Honoring College Football's Defensive Best" . lottimpacttrophy.org . Retrieved July 17, 2018 . ^ "Rimington Trophy Press Release" . May 30, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018 . ^ "2018 Bednarik Award Watch List" . July 16, 2018. Archived from the original on July 16, 2018. Retrieved July 16, 2018 . ^ "2018 Maxwell Award Watch List" . July 16, 2018. Archived from the original on July 16, 2018. Retrieved July 17, 2018 . ^ "2018 Bronko Nagurski Trophy Preseason Watch List" . July 24, 2018. Retrieved July 24, 2018 . ^ "22018 OUTLAND TROPHY WATCH LIST UNVEILED" . July 24, 2018. Retrieved July 24, 2018 . ^ "Ray Guy Award preseason watch list unveiled" . July 25, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2018 . ^ "Wuerffel Trophy Unveils 2018 Watch List" . July 26, 2018. Archived from the original on July 26, 2018. Retrieved July 26, 2018 . ^ Carbone, Al (July 27, 2018). "Walter Camp Football Foundation Announces 2018 Player of the Year Preseason "Watch List" " . Retrieved July 30, 2018 . ^ "2018 Nominations The Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award" (PDF) . August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 17, 2018 . ^ "UCF Tabbed as Favorite in 2018 Preseason Media Poll" . TheAmerican.org . Retrieved July 24, 2018 . ^ "2018 Houston Cougars Football Schedule" . FB Schedules. Retrieved April 27, 2018 . ^ "Houston vs. Rice - Game Summary - September 1, 2018" . ESPN . Retrieved September 8, 2018 . ^ "Arizona vs. Houston - Game Summary - September 8, 2018" . ESPN . Retrieved September 8, 2018 .
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