BONUS! Reaction to Houston's 2023 Big 12 Football Schedule!

Goose house all right we got a new Big 12 schedule and we're live to break it down here today at locked on cougs [Music] daily podcast on the Houston Cougars part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day [Music] welcome to locked on cougars daily podcast about your Houston Cougars I'm your host Houston born teacher and Coach Parker Angel with here to break down all things cougs if you have age Fantasia hate again said bye please be sure to hit subscribe down below welcoming all in new Big 12 haters come on into the show and hit subscribe down below for the latest on the Houston Cougars we appreciate you making us your first lesson of the day obviously coming to a little bit later this afternoon for a live show to go through one by one the brand new schedule leaves the big tour schedules just came out we also just hit 500 subscribers I want to say thank you to all that subscribe already we're going to be giving away a sparkle gift package I gotta talk to people at Sparkle get that sent out and we'll contact those people as needed thank you all so much to make sure you enter the next contest we'll get to 750 subscribers hey we gotta get there say subscribe and be gonna be leaving comments down below so give us a comment down below what do you think the Houston Cougars record will be at the end of the season once this get well now the sketches out now you see what it looks like um this is our first attention to the live show so I see people kind of rolling in that's awesome uh there will be technical difficulties and there will be random things pop up I'm sure but for now it's fun to get to talk to you a little bit about the cougs and football before we get too far I do need to tell you that uh much like this is our first attempt at a live show and it's relatively new this is also a new sponsor FanDuel FanDuel is the place to place all your sports bets it's the number one sports book in America and the bet I'm telling people to take right now is they've got Dallas got it at plus 200 score touchdown Super Bowl at any time after seeing the way the Kansas City Chiefs played the two Dynamic receivers in the AFC Championship game of Cincinnati Bengals I feel like they're going to treat Devonte Smith and AJ Brown the same way and I could see Dallas got it scoring for sure so make sure we cash in on that at fanduel.com locked on all right so the schedule just came out and there were a couple leaks yesterday and the days before about it so something we broke down in this morning's episode kind of you know preemptively getting ready for this but uh let's go ahead and break it down the schedule has home against UTSA at Rice which is technically a road game Houston hosts TCU hosts Sam Houston State let's go across the state to Lubbock to play Texas Tech nope no bad words about Lubbock now um bye week in between there and then we'd play West Virginia on a Thursday at home that's a fun one to talk more about that later Texas then comes to Houston to play at TDECU Stadium there was controversy there that's a home game October 21st and they go to Kansas State to Baylor back-to-back weeks then home against Cincinnati familiar foe home against Oklahoma State not so familiar Foe and then the road to wrap up the regular season against Central Florida now what I think is interesting here is in looking at this um across the board I think this is as good a schedule as Houston could have hoped for I know there was a lot of people on Twitter talking about wanting or not wanting to have Oklahoma as well I think it's kind of unrealistic that any new school to the Big 12 is going to get Oklahoma this year because the cash cow that they were uh because the the gate they bring in the TV Revenue they bring in that becomes an automatic primetime game in many ways right um they're not going to like just give that two of those games to all of the new teams and we got Texas and frankly in getting to pick between the two for a number of reasons when we get to that game in a moment I would rather have Texas um for a number of different reasons I would rather have Texas but we're gonna start at the top and just kind of work our way down um I'm gonna probably throw my initial analysis at wins and losses on there I also have my research pulled up so it might be again this is a live show so I'm going back and for a little bit but UTSA and rice right off the bat uh I think Houston's got to win those two games and like not the way that they beat UTSA last season um UTSA last season was fairly close game Utah State ended up having a pretty strong year but the end of the year and folks kind of I think understood why Houston struggled initially after watching it play out but this cannot be like that frankly UTSA has got to got to got to be the kind again that Houston opens of the gates and like hey look this is a Big 12 Football team now they've got a number of different transfer recruits on the defensive side that should help I kind of you know man that up so it's not quite so many new faces over there and then it'll be our first time to look at Donovan Smith or Lucas Coley in a starting role in the Houston Cougar uniform against live competition I hope that Houston has picked a quarterback by then I think it looks like they will have um they'll use Spring ball to decided for sure but I would imagine you're seeing Donovan Smith run the football some as a dual threat quarterback as early in that game um obviously that's a little bit dangerous but there's no reason that you bring in Iman Agave to change offensive line coaches about shifting scheme a little bit and the Gabby is a much much heavier run-based guy and so I think that's going to see at the gate there and frankly to prove it they're gonna need to kind of dominate UTSA and rice because otherwise it could be a long long season for a fan because if you can't dominate those two games you got a real problem right um so I kind of want to get those out the way really really fast um TCU is is the welcome to the Big 12 moment now TCU obviously last season 13-2 got to the national championship game and while it was the largest defeat in a bowl game now in a championship game large defeat in a bowl game in uh bowl game history when uh TCU lost to Georgia I do have to say that that doesn't necessarily leave me like super hopeful as far as like oh but so they're gonna be down right that's there's a little bit of a hangover there a college football turnover is fairly quick and frankly they're also the same football team that got there um when I look at like who's coming in who's going out for TCU um obviously Duggan's a big big deal right Max Duggan the Heisman trophy finalist and like he was in tears actually didn't win the national championship game whatever he's on his way out I believe right he was a senior last season um and so as I look at things this year they've got some guys coming in I'm trying to scroll down to the transfer portal guys to be sure um but I would imagine that the truth here is that ccu's got a Sunny Dykes built program and the big thing they've done the transfer portal whether it's guys coming in from smaller programs like ECU or big programs like Alabama and they got a few of those guys too guys are transferring back back to TCU in a way that I think is worth noting like they're they're reloading right um now I I think it's interesting that they had a quarterback transfer out um so you got to figure out like what are they going to do with all of that um but I do feel like that's a really good football team so welcome to the Big 12 moment first uh Big 12 team to come to TDECU Stadium where both teams are wearing Big 12 on their chest I'm hopeful but if they drop one to TCU in a competitive thing um I I think I'm okay with that right like first in the Big 12 that's again team those just the national championship of being realistic I want to make sure we're competitive in that game have a competitive atmosphere in that game and that like tdcu is all red no purple and rocking right that that's important to me with a good showing and then if you're playing them close down the stretch and like field goal here goes wrong feel good like those things may happen this really talented football team for your first year in the conference now if they win that game they got a stretchier where it could really get nice right and so I that's why I think the competitiveness there is going to be key because the next week you go up to Lubbock and play Texas Tech and I'm assuming Donovan Smith is the starting quarterback at the University of Houston I guess I get proven Wrong by Lucas Coley um the spring and frankly I welcome the competition let's see it play out if Donald Smith is the starting quarterback at University of Houston when they go to play Texas Tech I guess they play Sam Houston Stadium between there but I'm assuming that's a win suddenly that's a very hostile environment because he was their quarterback when they beat Houston last year right and I don't know if you've never been to Lubbock for college football game I've got family out in Lubbock um it's it's a fun place to watch a game because there's not a whole lot else to do and so if that game is like the night game and they've been sitting around tailgating all day long that's a very very hostile place to play go back and watch in a 2008 fall 2008 Michael Crabtree has the game-winning catch against Texas right um what if Texas was supposed to go now Champion game chokes right um that game wouldn't get like for whatever reason they throw tortillas in Lubbock like the hoorah of that game right they're gonna have the same kind of build up to like welcome their transfer out quarterback Donovan Smith in to play that game and that's going to be an insane environment that's kind of the reason you get into the Big 12 from a competitive standpoint is you get to go play in those games um I think on the field Houston is more talented than Texas Tech um we saw the game be very competitive and close last season and assuming that Donna Smith and nagavi fit together in a run game scenario and as far as scheme goes like I think they will I feel fairly confident that that is a close competitive win for the Houston Cougars um and frankly there's a real world where if TCU is a competitive but doesn't go our way kind of game that that's the first Big 12 win as a member of Big 12 Conference for the Houston Cougars and that's a really really cool moment for a Smith MB holgerson holgerson's coming back around to Big 12-2 right um and I think that could be what's on the road and not necessarily something Houston gets to enjoy themselves a really really cool moment um following that we get a bye week and I think Houston needs to breathe in that bye week and it's very very well placed by a week because that bye week comes right before the Houston Cougars play West Virginia um Dana holgerson's old school now before we talk too much of West Virginia I do need to remind the folks at home that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel fanduel.com the number one sports book in America they have all your Super Bowl 57 I can't read one when it was at 57 right all you Roman all your Super Bowl 57 bets at fanduel.com locked on again if the Eagles Eagles have Channel View Zone Jalen hurt taking Snaps right so as long as that thing is two points or less I'm taking the Eagles to win that's more or less a pick em uh my prop bet I'm telling you to take is they continue to have Dallas Goddard at plus 200 it's going anytime touchdown and I just think that's silly he's gonna score a touchdown because the way we've seen Kansas City cover teams with two strong receivers they leave underneath guys like Dallas Goddard as a tight end open uh and we also seen Jalen hurts using very well frankly we think Jalen hurts to use a tight end very well since he was at Champion View High School in Houston right like I think that seems like a very easy like if Philadelphia scores a passing touchdown I imagine it's to Goddard uh so that's going to be my choice for their it's plus 200 I said pick I think you gotta go with that fanduel.com locked on all right so as we look at uh the schedule after the bye week we've got our short week against West Virginia what I like about this is Houston gets the bye week before the short week so theoretically you just have a shorter bye week and then start preparing the Thursday before West Virginia right like it actually works out in our favor because suddenly the short week is not it's like a misnomer we actually had a long week we had a week and a half right to get ready for West Virginia to come to Houston on Thursday now part of me wishes this were a road game I know people can think I'm crazy but uh Road games on Thursdays mean fans we get to travel quite as easily because you got to go to work Friday theoretically you're gonna take a day off work and you take off work to go to West Virginia how far away West Virginia all those kind of things right but I think this is a very winnable game for the Cougars uh West Virginia is leaving the Big 12 it appears by most inside information looking kind of things um they were just five and seven last season and their transfer guys coming in are not necessarily like guys that had Stellar college careers ahead of time they were power Five Guys a lot of like Penn State um and uh I what is this uh they have one guy is that a LSU right like they got guys coming in that have decent pedigrees but didn't get on the field the guys that were on the field that are now transferring to West Virginia are like Tennessee State type guys New Mexico type guys um athletes that I'm not necessarily like Houston has seen before right further there's a lot on the line here for Dana in that he leaves West Virginia some people would call it a mutual Exodus but he leads West Virginia to come back and take the Houston job and now Houston's in the Big 12 before West Virginia gets to leave it and getting to play them as well um worth noting Houston just got a transfer tight end uh Michael Laughlin he's he's in from West Virginia so I guess he's on the same boat as far as like having just left but more importantly I look at this West Virginia team as a team that was not very good last year and a team that doesn't look like horribly improved next season uh I see a comment saying but she's not leading the big 12. there's rumors that like they won't make it the whole TV contract um because they're kind of at a different spot than the rest of the Big 12 and not that it's like as soon as Texas and Oklahoma uh Texas will obviously leave like fairly fairly quickly I think the 20 25 days the latest um that all being said I do think that West Virginia does look to be a winnable game for Houston at home on a Thursday night and I enjoyed the idea of celebrating that on a Thursday night I just kind of wish you were there because I'm fairly confident they win the game and I want that moment for Dana I want Dana to have the winnable game um all the way out there and I feel like that's a big moment for him because he got a lot of flack for leaving that job for the Houston job if you're looking at like The Wider college football landscape and I also think that again I'm fairly confident Houston's winning that matchup this year on a Thursday night and so it'd be nice to see him like go into the hostile environment and take it away um the big big game follows that one though and it is the following Saturday uh so Thursday short week right so you can actually get a full like like extra recovery time before going into the weekend and then October 21st UT Austin does come to town now UT Austin coming to town is a fun one for a number of reasons uh there are controvers around this game because it sounds like a reading between the lines on some of the stuff Duarte has reported that there was a big name school that really really really did not want to play Houston at TDECU Arena they wanted to play our Stadium they wanted to play at more like NRG or a big time Stadium um I read that from the get-go as Texas uh there's been like talking last 24 hours that it might have been Oklahoma right um but Texas now coming to TDECU Stadium means Houston won that bet and frankly Houston wins that in a way that it sounds like they turned down the larger sum of money which would have been playing at NRG to host the game for the uh program Stadium fans student body Etc right I think UT Austin probably thinks they could have like sold a lot of tickets at energy at a 50 50 split because there's a lot of Texas alums in the Houston area however being on campus for U of H is a little bit smaller Stadium but ought to be a whole lot more rocking atmosphere um I think the interesting thing in looking at the Texas game is on paper Texas will always be forever as long as Houston plays them as long as I think there's one or two years that remain in the Big 12 and anytime the flame after that any kind of Houston will have a lot more stars next to their recruits names for the time being it'll take a while for Houston to catch up in that but I don't think anyone from Houston is worried about that right like Houston continues to have guys like find like the the tank Dale out of Juco kind of guys right Matthew golden the local kid we just got Mikhail Harrison pilot right a four-star like he's continued to find good enough players and we've seen them Excel with those guys right in a way that I kind of see the opposite happening at UT Austin right UT Austin goes and gets the five-star quarterback and then blows a big lead against Oklahoma State right like that's what UT Austin does and as as much fun is to chuckle at that um this is the kind of game in Houston that's setting up for kind of a mid-season embarrassment in a lot of ways for UT Austin that just played Oklahoma I believe uh a week before from reading this I can't tell us upside down or backside up but around the same time of year right uh they come to campus into Houston and frankly like I I just I feel like it's one of those moments where the culture piece matters and I know that people have their complaints about Dana holgerson but the culture piece at Texas has been problematic for a while like going back 10 years at this point they seem to get top in recruits not win any games those guys don't get drafted but then still end up being Pros making plays on Sunday Night Football right and so I think this is the game as uh I think Stephen comments in the post down below that this is the game that Houston's got to go take and it's your shot to take one to them because a the idea if Texas is in the conference Following season is still a in the air and less and B it's also like you're out of spotting your program we're assuming Donna Smith is the guy that we think he is um he fixes anti-texas Tech starter last season we know he's capable if we surround him with the right scheme of players right he is capable of doing that kind of a thing um I also thanks for pointing out that like I'm fairly confident guys like adary Holstein guys he pulled on the defensive side to shut down Quinn yours um Quinn yours is an impressive quarterback and I'm going to say that he's not but I like rooting against the guy with the mullet and so we'll see how that goes um I I also think it's worth pointing out that like okay UT Austin probably thinks less of this game than Houston does right and I think that's going to play into in a weird way a lot of the three and two star guys that Houston finds is like the diamond the rough types or even the transfers into Houston are not necessarily guys that got like the opportunity to go like they can get offers necessarily from I mean Mikhail Harrison pilot did but offers from the Texas of the world where they could go have the big luxurious bajillion dollar locker rooms those kind of things that's the chip on their shoulder I think that Houston will be carrying from now until October 21st when it's time to kick this one off and I think it's a kind of game where that's going to matter um I know that's a lot of culture talk not a lot of x's and o's talk for what it's worth I do think sarkisian's a good coach as far as that X's nose piece goes um and I do think I'm intrigued to see what nagavi's defensive schematics look like that just feels like a conversation to be having in October as we build up to the game I've seen it play out a little bit on the season and frankly I also um I think the culture piece is more important as far as this game goes because town on the field I don't like again three stars and four stars versus four stars and five stars I I don't I don't think we Stack Up on paper quite the same way I just don't think the games played on paper at last I checked and I think that's okay for us um after that Texas is a tough pair of games against Kansas State and Baylor and I think Baylor is a getable one Baylor was kind of up and down last season had a bit of a roller coaster last season if you're looking for another good lockdown podcast locked on Bailey would like Drake's a great host over there um and they went make sure six and seven last season and they had high highs and low lows they did play in a bowl game um I I say that that's a good one for Houston to get because I'm worried that Kansas State's won they have a lot more trouble with they're not catching us early in the season like the rtcu Kansas State people forget did win the conference last season and they have to go on the road to Manhattan Kansas to do it those are all things I think are working against Houston in that one and so I I don't mean to go too too quickly past that one but unless Houston is coming off a couple big wins against West Virginia and Texas I'm feeling really good about next year initially today that Kansas State one feels tough because if they beat Texas like I think they can on October 21st they're not going to come down off that high until like Tuesday or Wednesday of that week right and then you gotta like gear up and get ready and then go play and again that's a really really good Kansas State football team to play and they play a really tough like hard-nosed brand of football up there in Manhattan Kansas it's going to be late October it's going to be kind of brisk and cold and awful weather I'm sure like I can just it's gonna be it's gonna be right um that's going to be a tough one Baylor the week after though even though it's in Waco I feel like we can catch him on that one and get that one right and so suddenly we're looking a lot of wind stacking up here right we're both eligible with the Baylor win by my account if I'm if we're winning games I think we're gonna win the Baylor win would make us Bowl eligible right um yeah so I I actually might have been the Texas one Texas wins a 50 50 meat but then culture counts so um I think that that's really important for Baylor for it to beat Baylor because like I said it'll be more of a bounce back kind of Win app and that's I just don't I'll be back can you hear me awesome um so I I feel like I'm if I'm back can I get a comment saying I'm back um what I want to say here is that the last three games here you got Cincinnati Oklahoma State and then at Central Florida um Cincinnati feels like one that I I believe I said but it might have cut out um Houston is in large part feeling pretty good about because there we go we said Dwayne says we're back um Houston has to feel pretty good about because the Big 12 took Cincinnati thinking it was the kind of football program it was a couple years ago and they were building towards you know they made the final the college football playoffs right um in looking at their product in the field last they were good last year but not that good and their transfers I would argue Houston's had a better series of transfers both because they're both moving into the Big 12 so we're getting a little bit more count higher caliber type of guy coming in guys that wants to play in the power five conference but Houston it's doing a good job of getting houstonian kids or Houston area kids or Texas kids to come back to town and they do that great job with that in their four and five uh their Force Recruiting they did a couple couple receivers and stuff over the last two recruit Cycles Cincinnati a bluntly is not the same city and I don't mean that to be rude to Ohio or whatever I guess it's kind of technically Northern Kentucky um but I do think that that matters here because that's kind of the biggest selling point in either school right Cincinnati always had to compete with Ohio State up the road just for that um and frankly there's not like they have to be with Kentucky just south for the Northern Kentucky kids right um Houston has kind of done a good job of I think of taking over a lot of four-star recruiting in that you know from Katie to Baton Rouge area um and they've done a really really good job of that I also think that being familiar with another team like Cincinnati helps you at this point I also think hosting the game at home helps at this point because going to Ohio in early November could be tough um we also know that if both teams are kind of struggling the Big 12 the home field environment they're like hey this is one we can get right and I think that that's going to help out a lot I trust in Dana here I know people are going to look back at the American Athletic Conference Championship game from a couple years ago I'm like wait what are you talking about like that was awful um but I I feel confident about Cincinnati game especially being in Houston Oklahoma State's one when I looked this oh God I have trouble Oklahoma State and I don't know what to make of them and I don't mean like the way Baylor was an up and down roller coaster in 2022 um Oklahoma State went seven and six and like one games they should have lost and lost games they should have won and I don't know which Oklahoma state from 2022 is the same one to predict like to build predictions based off of looking in 2023. um I will say in looking at their commitments they have a lot of like three star kids so they feel almost more in the same like ballpark as Houston as far as the kids in town on the field goes and then when you go to the transfer portal window guys um the big news to them was guys leaving Spencer Sanders their starting quarterback is no longer going to be there he's moving as he said up in the world to go to Ole Miss right and go to the SEC and power Tom Cruise that I don't know a whole lot about what their offense will look like without him there I know with him there again it was kind of up and down and the one game that shouldn't have in Lost games it should have so maybe they're more stable by that point this season um we'll see uh you know worth pointing out we mentioned like guys going home when we played West Virginia the places they'd started before Stefan Johnson as a wide receiver coming in the University of Houston he's coming from Oklahoma State so he probably has same kind of moment I don't know how much the receiver rotation he fits into um it's a really really crowded and talented receiver room at Houston but he's certainly in the too deep and so we'll see how that goes um that's all to say that now they wrap the season in Central Florida in Orlando and adamantly if you're gonna go on the road in late November Orlando's probably as good a place as you want to go um this is not the central Florida team that went like 13-0 or 12-1 was that roughly half decade ago this is more like the central Florida team you know that was kind of middle of the American Athletic Conference top end of the American a little conference if you want right uh on offense they continue to be the same kind of uh Dynamic rushing attack last season I I feel like with the d-line continuing to bolster stuff we just added Jalen hunting yesterday um and you're adding guys like a couple Edge players from Power five conferences to kind of get you ready for power five football I I feel like Houston's set for Central Florida I do admit that playing a familiar Foe on the road to end the season could be not so great um and frankly the the big thing that has me worried about this one is the way that Houston landed against Tulsa this past season right um because that should have been a game Houston's trying to win to like get into a better bowl game and instead it was a game Houston just came out not ready to play because it was like not great weather in Tulsa Oklahoma and they didn't want to be there or whatever right um that's me read between lines I guess no one's reported that that's why it didn't play so well but that was my thought there and so I'm a little bit worried about that one at the end of the season from a like rivalry standpoint an off-the-field standpoint but on the field I think again Houston's got as much or more talent and most important spots um and so we'll see I guess as long as far as their like transfers go um they have one big transfer coming in and offensive lineman coming in from Alabama he didn't get much on the field of Alabama but at high school he was a four-star kid um so you know if it's a road Raider type and having a real great season by then we'll know um but I I imagine that um that's a tough one to play just because they'll be thinking even if they have a rough big 12 season okay this team we know we can get one of the same playing field as Houston and it's on the road it's other place it ends the season I will say though I've got one two three four five six seven I'm looking at like a an eight win nine-win season um if they win things like the Texas game um and if they can you know I think the Baylor game is tough coming off of a loss against Kansas State because they can't say it's really good I think when that Baylor game I think so as well um and then I think Oklahoma state looks down without Sanders there so I'm looking at like a fairly High win season and frankly having the exact same amount of wins in your first year as the Big 12 as you did in your last year in the American Athletic Conference I think it's a really powerful move in like a an indicator of what direction to see the program is heading in um I also think it's worth pointing out that like I all the home games are at TDECU Stadium right like that's a big big thing that we have evidence that they fought for and we see it play out they're trying to do things the right way as a program and I think it's the year where you have to kind of like reward the program by going to the games right you can't sit there and say well I'm not going to go to that game I'll show up when they play Texas I'm not going to go to that game I'll show up and then play Cincinnati like you got to go to Sam he's like reward the team right reward the team be a part of it um 70 wins the Big 12 I'll also point out potentially nine uh that net you a much higher or much higher dollar bowl game than going seven wins in the American Athletic Conference and so that leads to more of a showcase that situation at the end of the season and all of those things um we will be breaking all the things down in a much more detailed fashion obviously we get off season and looking at the season more specifically we get some Spring ball football to look at the guys themselves as well um but I also feel like as far as the first initial look goes this schedule's a win for Houston a big time Big Time win for Houston that's really really hard to argue against like unless you wanted Oklahoma to come to town too and I I would have told you that because it would have been Fool's Gold I think this is as good a schedule Houston could have realistically asked for to get Texas mid-season but also like at a point where they'll feel good about like where they are as a program um opening up with TCU I guess if you're going to catch me might as well try and catch them early like getting him to play home games against West Virginia Texas like at Tech is tough because it's at Tech but on the whole that's not so bad being uh any more High hours as well we'll do it all here each and every day plus basketball season plus March Madness plus because Samson at lockdown Kooks make sure you subscribe down below subscribe comment give a thumbs up all the good things to help with the podcast remember locked on cougars primary lock Palm podcast Network go cougs