Four And Oh!

Long plays fuel milestone win for UH

Riding the arm of Kevin Kolb and the legs of Jackie Battle, the Cougars rolled to a spectacular 34-25 victory over the Cowboys before a crowd of 28,260, the third-largest crowd in Robertson Stadium history.

The skies threatened to open up for much of the game, but neither rain, nor wind — and certainly not the Cowboys' defense — could stop the Cougars from running up and down the field as they pleased.

When the last few seconds fell off the clock, the Houston fans stormed the field, celebrating the big victory over an opponent from the Big 12, a league that had tortured the Cougars for over a decade, all chanting, "Four and oh! Four and oh!" in reference to the Cougars' record.

Indeed, the Big 12 had been a big problem, winning five previous games by huge margins, but on this night the Cougars made all the big plays (well, most of them), both offensively and defensively.

It's the sixth 4-0 start in school history.

Kolb had a game that will have his website, www.kolbheismanwatch.com, melting down, throwing for 313 yards and four touchdowns against a Cowboys' first-string defensive unit that had not given up a point all season. And Battle pounded away for 108 yards on 23 carries, keeping the Oklahoma State defense off-balance all night long.

OSU isn't exactly cream of the Big 12 crop, but considering our past travails against crap teams from that conference, I'll take it. Four and oh is four and oh. Wish I coulda made this one, but I think I might be wise to get my UTEP tickets sooner rather than later.

The attendance for the game looked decent. My guess is that there were discounts aplenty (again). UH athletics has always been a tough sell, competing with the NFL, NBA, and MLB. The move to Robertson wasn't one that I was a big fan of and my hunch is that that makes the sell a tad tougher. But if enough people get there to see the Coogs win some games, who knows what might come of it all.