Houston Cougars Season Preview | Can they make a Bowl Game?, Donovan Smith SZN, and more!

next up in our big 12 preview is the Houston Cougars and da really was kind of the same for them as it was for the other three new schools in the Big 12 last year uh in UCF BYU and Cincinnati experienced some Growing Pains going from the group of five level up to the power five level kougar finished the year with a 4-8 record after going 20 and seven over the last two years head coach Dana hogerson was fired after 5 years leading the program and to Lan's Willie Fritz was brought in to take over and fritzman had done a masterful job of Turning Around The Green Wave they went 23 and five over the last couple Seasons T hasn't had a two-year stretch that good dwn since the 1930s it's been a long time almost a 100 years since tul has been that good over a couple of Seasons so uh he should he's going to try to do the same thing at Houston now has a high upside quarterback and uh and Donovan Smith to work with him yeah for sure if Fritz is going to bring that Mojo from New Orleans down the road to Houston he's going to R on that quarterback in his passing game right Donovan Smith has massive tools we'll get into it a minute Big Frame and a huge arm got a receiver like Joseph manjack on the outside coming back and guy I really like it tight end you're going to get into in a minute as well as Malik Carr who led the country in receiving grade among tight end's got some real wow moments in his tape but if he's going to succeed this year they're going to center it around Donovan Smith and this passing game absolutely now the question is the other side of the ball everywhere on defense has a major question mark they were the fifth worst in the power five and 10th worst in the country last year in terms of EPA per play and to make matters worse their four highest graded defensive players last year are all gone as well too so lot of questions defensively from what already what was one of the 10 worst in the country last year and they lose their top four defensive players arguably uh there's a lot of questions defensively but Don tell me more about Donovan Smith I've seen some people D say this guy is a top five pick in 2020 at quarterback what is there to why is that and what is there to know about Donovan Smith why that is is because every year there's one guy with insane physical tools who in shorts will impress the living hell out of you right he's 65 he's 235 and he's got arguably may just sheer velocity he might have the strongest arm in the country uh this is a physical specimen and he can run too man he had over 600 rushing yards last year so you look at Donovan Smith and you just you just look at him and you're like wow that's like that's an NFL looking player right there now there's plenty of stuff to improve still right where you know there's times when he flashes high-end stuff especially the the arm strength again is going to be the biggest thing you go that's that's a plus plus NFL arm right just an A+ arm again maybe the strongest arm in the country some things to work on though honestly like he doesn't make a ton of big mistakes like his turnover worthy play rate is kind of average but he makes like one throw per week that you just go like what in the world like just why like a game breaking back breaking throw it whether it be an interception or a dropped interception or what the other thing too that I found kind of weird and it's it's maybe just some guys have this obviously usually at the college level a lot of guys sort this out has a real problem throwing to his left like he's right-handed right and like a lot of times kids come up from high school and they kind of throw one way or the other whether it's in one side of the field or the other but if you look at him throw down the middle and to his right spectacular and for some reason throwing to like the left third of the field is a problem usually Max with that comes down to his footwork and fundamentals really in your mechanics and your drop and and your work in the pocket so it's think it's something that probably can be fixed and I don't know if they're aware of it yet or maybe we're making them aware of it right now but that's what I see is I go feels like every single big throw is down the right sideline like what's going on there's just down to his left it's just a whole different problem but there is obviously a big physical potential here again you have a guy who's 65 almost 240 with an absolute bazooka right and some people felt this about Joe Milton at Tennessee last year right so they're gonna the scouts are gonna have their eyes on Donovan Smith in this passing game for sure they absolutely will another guy in the passing game they'll have their eyes on is Malik Carr the transfer tight end coming in from Michigan State I mean they were really busy in the transfer portal this off they added 24 new players and the best transfer I think they brought in was Malik car man you mentioned it before LED all power five tight ends with a 90.6 receiving grade second in the nation with a 90.6 receiving grade as well freak athlete at 66 265 nightmare to tackle for defensive backs um he had the 40th most catches among FBS tight ends last year with 40 catches uh had the 10th most forcus tackles with 10 so he really made the most of his catches last year broke a tackle on 25% of his catches which is a really really high rate 1.89 yards per route run top 10 Mark in the power five as well he should be one of Donovan Smith's best friends this upcoming season I'm a big fan of Malik Carr and like I said they brought in a lot of transfers and I think Malik Carr was the best one they brought in yeah I agree I think he's one of the sleeper tight ends in next year's draft there's some real wow moments in his tape even playing for Michigan State last year but go to another transfer on defense and this time from West Virginia they get a slot strong safety kind of hybrid guy and certainly a guy that makes the alln name team and that's Hershey McClaren man and I'll tell you what he is a hard-hitting slot strong safety hybrid who wants to come down and get his nose into the Run game man a 79 run defense grade last year that was a top 50 Mark in the country he's a guy that can bring a real physical presence to their front seven and even play a little bit in coverage obviously out in the slot gives you that kind of little bit of everything feel but first and foremost he's a really physical player brings some attitude to a defense that really really needs it absolutely man so don you look at the sports books right now Houston win total of three and a half after going 4-8 last year do you think this is like a 3-9 4-8 football team or do you think under a great new coach and Willie Fritz and a very very high upside quarterback and Donovan Smith that they could make a bowl game next year um look it took Willie Fritz time to build it down at two lane too that wasn't an immediate turnaround it took him time with a guy like Michael Pratt took him a couple years to really get that thing going and up towards you know beating USC in a bowl game and doing all that stuff but I mean you have a quarterback who you can clearly win with but there's a just a so many questions otherwise right you lost two of your top three receivers you mentioned the defense man if this defense doesn't get better then this is going to look more like a long-term project as opposed to turning it around this year and honestly a lot of first year coaches come in and Willie Fritz may just be looking to just change the culture and get the recruiting base and get even the transfer portal base with all how all that works so the winning this year may not even be the most primary goal when it comes to the program I I could see where that comes from um I think a bowl game would be successful in in coach Fritz's first year I I'm not entirely sure they get there with that defense yeah I'm with you I think the defense is a major question mark and also they play the second hardest schedule in the Big 12 uh 16th hardest in the in the country as well so um and and not only that I mean Arizona St has a hardest schedule at 14th hardest in the country Houston's second at 16th the next closest one is at 36th right so those two schools play really difficult schedules a big reason for that D Houston's got Oklahoma as one of their non-conference games this year so that it's a big one and they also play Iowa State Kansas Utah Kansas State uh Arizona like they play a lot of really good Big 12 teams too so I'm with you I don't think they're making a bowl game next year but I do think as a world where they win four or five games next year but um if they make a bowl game it would be an excellent excellent first year for Willie Fritz but with all the questions defensively and how bad they were last year and the fact that they lost their four best defensive players I I think there's a lot of questions on that side of the ball and that could uh make them miss another bll game in 2024 that's what we got for our preview of the Houston Cougars hey thanks for watching the PFF college football show before I let you go though we have an unbelievable deal for you guys right now if you use the code cfb2 you get 25% off your PFF plus annual subscription we got the 2024 college football preview guide you can find over at pff.com featuring the best players in the country from all 70 power five teams plus 10 group of five teams that have the best chance of making the college football playoff as well you can also gain access to NCAA premium stats for historical games uh teams and player tracking dating all the way back to 2014 so the last decade or so of college football all the stats you can hope for you could find in PFF premium as well also you can be the GM of your favorite NFL team with our unbelievable Mock Draft simulator where you can draft up to seven rounds of players for your NFL team and if you want to dominate your fantasy 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