The UH/AAC Report
Short week offers Houston an opportunity for redemption
Alex Baltazar
Nov 14, 2018, 6:21 am
D'Eriq King breaks AAC single season TD passing record Houston Cougar Football Facebook
Temple 59, Houston 49
Houston’s season has lost all of the luster it gained two weeks ago after being ranked No. 17 in the AP Top 25 poll. They are in a two game losing skid, and in a three-way tie sitting at 4-2 in the AAC West with SMU and Tulane. Offense is definitely not an issue for Houston, but they have somehow lost two games this season when scoring at least seven touchdowns. (Texas Tech, Temple).
Saturday’s Homecoming game was also accompanied by the celebrations of the 243rd Marine Corps Birthday and Veteran’s Day, but these celebrations were spoiled very early. A blocked punt induced by the Owl’s special teams was capitalized 70 seconds after kickoff by RB Ryquell Armstead; Who had 30 carries, 210 rushing yards, and a AAC record breaking 6 rushing TDs. Temple QB Anthony Russo had a quiet game mainly due to the effectiveness of their rushing attack; He went 14 for 22, threw for 217 yards, and 0 TD’s. After an early 14-point explosive start from the Owls, the Cougars would try to tie the game, but it took them almost 13 minutes and 15 play drive to finally score a touchdown. Houston played from behind the entire game and would never even tie it, the closest score margin was 7 points. On a positive note, King broke UCF’s QB McKenzie Milton’s AAC 2017 single season touchdown record by surpassing 45 TDs with two games left in the season. He went 28 for 46, threw for 322 yards, had 6 total TDs, and had 1 INT.
The question remains as to what the defensive adjustments will be after Ed Oliver departs. Defensive Coordinator Mark D’Onofrio is definitely on the chopping block, but you can make the case that many of his key players are sidelined due to injuries that have ended their seasons. Oliver has sat for the last three games due to a knee contusion suffered after receiving a nasty chop block vs. Navy in Annapolis. Head Coach Major Applewhite has held Oliver from doing press conferences mostly to protect him from the difficult position he is in right now and what is to come in the future since he is a projected top five NFL draft pick next year. On Tuesday evening, it was reported that he would sit out again this week vs. Tulane. Regardless, Houston continues to be one of the worst defenses in the FBS, ranking last in pass defense, 121st in total defense, 116th in third down defense, out of 129 schools. Unacceptable.
The one good thing for Houston is that it is a short week. They have a shot at reconciliation and the opportunity for a division lead against Tulane at home on Thursday night. But it won’t be easy, Tulane is on a three game winning streak that includes a 41-15 blowout win over USF. This game could be another one of those typical AAC shootouts with no defense. (Hint: I would bet the over at 67.5) Houston must also keep an eye out on SMU, who holds the tie breaker against them in case of a tie at the end of the season. UH falls to 7-3 for the season, and 4-2 in the AAC West. Temple improves to 6-4 for the season, and 5-1 in the AAC East.
Tulane 24, ECU 18
The Green Wave won in front of their homecoming crowd on Saturday night. However, they lost their top pass rusher Patrick Johnson in the first half due to a targeting ejection and will also sit out the first half vs. Houston. Green Wave QB Justin McMillan went 12 for 28, threw for 372 passing yards, had 3 TDs, and 0 INTs. WR Darnell Mooney had 6 receptions for 217 yards and 2 TDs. ECU falls to 2-7 on the season and will face Connecticut in Greenville, NC. While Tulane improves to 5-5, 4-2 in the AAC West, and will play Houston for the division lead on Thursday at TDECU stadium.
UCF 35, Navy 24
The Golden Knights extend their win streak to 22 games after their win on Saturday vs the Midshipmen in Florida. McKenzie Milton had an easy night; he went 17 for 21, threw for 200 yards, rushed for 62 yards, had 3 total TDs, and 0 INTs. UCF ran the ball for 70 percent of their plays, where the rushing corps went for over 250 yards and accounted for 3 TDs. UCF maintains the No. 12 ranking in the College Playoff Rankings and will face a tough Cincinnati team on Saturday night. Navy drops to 2-8 and will play against Tulsa at home.
Other Notable Results in the AAC
SMU 62, UConn 50
Memphis 47, Tulsa 21
Cincinnati 35, USF 23
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or eight games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after the 6-10 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez. A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.