A Look At The AAC

The UH/AAC Report: a high scoring week, some teams stay hot while others cool

Jermaine Every
Oct 9, 2019, 5:55 am
UH Football/Facebook

Week six in the AAC was pretty high scoring. Five teams scored more than 30 points, with four of them scoring more than 40 and one scoring more than 50. Let's take a closer look at what transpired:

UH was off, but there's still news

Even though the Coogs were off, there was a bit of news that came down. Graduate transfer offensive lineman Justin Murphy has apparently quit the team. He started four games this year: three at right guard and one at right tackle. It's yet to be seen how true the report from GoCoogs.com has any truth or other sources to back it up. So for now, we'll assume it's true.

Other key results

Cincinnati 27, UCF 24: The Bearcats handed the Golden Knights their second loss of the season, and bumped them from the top 25 rankings while taking a spot on the rankings themselves.

SMU 43, Tulsa 37: SMU stayed undefeated with triple overtime win over the Tulsa. No one saw the lowly Golden Hurricanes giving the ranked, undefeated Mustangs this much trouble. SMU is 6-0 for the first time since 1982.

Tulane 42, Army 33: Tulane held off the Army rushing attack for a strong win improving to 4-1 on the season. What's most impressive is they beat Army with a rushing yardage differential of +131.

Stars of the week

Cincinnati Defense: I said last week that UCF would have a tough time with this defense on the road. While they gave up 423 yards of offense, they also forced four turnovers that helped them win the game.

Kenneth Gainwell, RB, Memphis: Talk about an appropriate name! He rushed for 209 yards on 14 carries and two touchdowns in a 52-33 win over ULM.

Tulane Offense: The Green Wave had four guys rush for 50 or more yards and a touchdown in their win over Army. This contributed heavily to their +131 rushing yardage differential.

Games to watch this week

Memphis @ Temple

Cincinnati @ Houston

Navy @ Tulsa

Players to watch this week

Kenneth Gainwell, Memphis: Gainwell leads a rushing attack that averages 214.4 yards a game going against a defense the gives up 125.6 yards a game on the ground.

Desmond Ridder, Cincinnati: I expect Ridder to have a big game against the porous UH defense as the 4-1 Bearcats look to build off their big win over UCF.

Tulsa Defense: The Golden Hurricanes are average against the run. Navy excels in their triple option attack. This will be the deciding factor in this matchup.

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Quarterback's loss is a serious blow

D'Eriq King to transfer from UH

Photo via Houston Cougar Football/Facebook

Houston's rough week of sports continued with yet more bad news late Tuesday night.

University of Houston quarterback D'Eriq King, who redshirted after four games, presumably to come back to UH in 2020, has entered the NCAA's transfer portal, meaning he will play elsewhere in 2020.

Where does he go?

King's best season was 2018, when he accounted for 50 touchdowns, the only player in the country to do so besides Heisman winner Kyler Murray.

But the Cougars started 1-3 in 2019, with King not thriving in new coach Dana Holgorsen's offense. King decided to redshirt and wait for 2020, when the Cougars would have several high profile transfers join the program.

Instead, King, who has already graduated, will be eligible to play elsewhere right away. Speculation is he will wind up at Arkansas, with his old offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, but he will be a hot commodity. Arkansas, one of the most woeful programs in the Power Five over the past two years, made a coaching change after going 2-10 and 0-8 in the SEC, so the main motivation for King would be to play in the SEC and perhaps put up some numbers in his senior year.

Originally, there was speculation he might try go to LSU, which just won the national title and loses Heisman winner Joe Burrow. He would also seem to be a good fit at Oklahoma.

What's next for UH?

It is certainly a bad look for Holgorsen, who basically blew off the 2018 season in hopes of having King back in 2020. But Clayton Tune was OK in relief of King and should improve. They also have incoming freshman Sofian Massoud from Cypress Lakes, who is highly regarded. Also, don't rule out Holgorsen dipping into the transfer pool himself, as he has a senior-dominated team built to win next year. He also has a good track record developing quarterbacks. So all is not lost, but it sure is not good news.

A day after an ugly Texans playoff loss, and the same day the Astros fired GM Jeff Luhknow and manager A.J. Hinch, King's transfer was just another bitter pill on a week of sports misery.


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