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With Scrimmage In the Books, Cougars Turn Attention To Another Week
Aug. 15, 2009 HOUSTON - For the first time this preseason the University of Houston football team took its drills to its home turf, squaring off against each other on John O'Quinn Field at Robertson Stadium in the first scrimmage during camp. With fans in attendance for the first time this season, the Cougars spent over an hour playing live football, and UH head coach Kevin Sumlin is pleased his team made it through the drills unscathed. When asked about what he liked most about the day, the second-year head coach responded, "I didn't see injuries. Any time you can get 100 snaps and not get anyone badly hurt, you are good and getting better. Obviously, we got a lot of snaps for some young guys and did some situational work. "For the most part the early offensive group protected the ball really well. For the first scrimmage we had very few flags, and that's what I look for...sloppy football. It wore down there in the end, and we had some other people in there. "But as long as we had that first and second group in there, I was pleased. We didn't have any problems with our alignments, no five-yard penalties to speak of really. I thought it was really clean, and that is what I look for." Led by junior quarterback Case Keenum, as well as backups Cotton Turner, Austin Elrod and Crawford Jones, the Cougar offense generated 386 yards through the air and tacked on 69 on the ground. Of the four touchdowns scored, three were on the ground with Jones' 10-yard strike to Chance Blackmon accounting for the only score through the air. Sophomore kicker Jordan Mannisto nailed two field goals; the first coming from 22 yards out and the second was drilled from 38 yards away. True freshman running back Charles Sims scored from six yards out, while Keenum and Turner both had one-yard quarterback sneaks for six points. Senior Ben Bell had the remaining points on the afternoon with a 39-yard field goal. Defensively, the Cougars racked up eight tackles for losses and five sacks, including two by true freshman Tyrone Campbell. Senior linebacker Nick Thurston paced the UH defense with 4.5 tackles, while the secondary tandem of senior Brandon Brinkley and sophomore Roisean Haynes both added four stops a piece. Both true freshman Zeke Riser and redshirt freshman Ken Van Heule posted the only two fumble recoveries on the afternoon. Keenum completed nine-of-11 of his pass attempts for 111 yards, while Turner led the Cougars with 140 yards passing on 12-of-21 attempts. Jones completed all seven of his attempts for 68 yards and the aforementioned score, while Elrod tossed for 67 yards on 6-of-10 attempts. The top receiver was redshirt freshman Demetrius Woods who had four catches for 67 yards, while junior-college transfer James Cleveland, seniors Tim Monroe and Chaz Rodriguez, and sophomores Tyron Carrier and Isaiah Sweeney each added three receptions a piece. Finally, on the ground sophomore Bryce Beall bulled his way for 32 yards on just six carries, and redshirt freshman Jeremiah Alexander chipped in 25 yards on nine carries. After taking Sunday off, the Cougars return to action with a Monday evening practice. Houston kicks off the 2009 season three weeks from today, hosting Northwestern State on Saturday, September 5, at 4 pm at Robertson Stadium.
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