Houston Lassos Thundering Herd, Holding Off Marshall To Keep Pace In C-USA

By Larry Nauss, SPM Assistant Editor
Posted Sunday, November 18, 2007

Houston senior tailback Anthony Alridge (No. 22) carries the mail again. He gained over 100 yards rushing for the tenth time in his Cougar career. Photo by Donnie Moreland.

HOUSTON, Texas - The University of Houston Cougars got off to a sluggish start on offense against Marshall University, but in a wild fourth-quarter finish, the Cougars withstood a late Marshall touchdown and held on for an exciting 35-28 victory on a drizzly, muggy day at Robertson Stadium. A Homecoming Day crowd of 21,116 watched the home team improve their record in an attempt to keep pace with Tulsa in Conference USA's West Division.

Houston (7-3, 6-2 C-USA) took a seemingly comfortable two-touchdown lead with 4:22 left in the fourth quarter, on a long, 62-yard touchdown strike from quarterback Case Keenum to tight end Mark Hafner.

Hafner enjoyed his best performance ever as a Cougar, finishing his day with six receptions for 128 receiving yards and what proved to be the game-winning score. He seemed to be completely ignored by the Marshall defense for most of the game. During the first half, he was wide open behind the secondary on one pass play, but Keenum didn't see him, electing to throw over the middle instead.

Marshall (2-9, 2-5 C-USA) has been enduring a dreadful season, despite defeating then C-USA East Division leader East Carolina last weekend, however the Herd didn't quit in this game. After Hafner's TD put Houston up by 14, Marshall came stampeding right back at the Cougars, going on a 69-yard drive resulting in a one-yard touchdown run by Kelvin Turner.

The Herd then attempted an onside kick, trying to gain possession to score another touchdown and tie the game. There were only two problems. One was the entire left side of the Marshall kickoff squad was offside on the attempt. The other was place kicker Anthony Binswanger kicked the ball out of bounds. The pair of miscues gave Houston ball possession and spelled doom for the Herd. Houston ran out the last couple of minutes on the clock to secure the important victory.

Houston's other major weapon was a familiar one. Senior tailback Anthony Alridge had 25 carries for 103 yards and one touchdown. He also scored on a pass reception for a TD,

Houston struck first with an early 32-yard field goal by place kicker T.J. Lawrence. Marshall hit a 32-yard touchdown on a pass from QB Bernard Morris to Emmanuel Spann with only 36 seconds left in the first quarter, taking a 7-3 lead.

The Cougars responded midway through the second quarter on a 9-play, 70-yard drive which Alridge finished off with a three-yard TD run. The halftime score remained that way, 10-7 Houston.

Another Lawrence FG from 24 yards put the Cougars up 13-7 early in the third quarter. A nice 75 yard drive midway through the third featured a 24-yard pass from Keenum to Alridge for a TD. Alridge was wide open right up the middle of the field and ran untouched into the end zone to give Houston its largest lead of the game to that point, 20-7, with 4:31 to go in the third quarter.

Marshall answered about two minutes later, after engineering an 8-play, 80-yard drive. Chubb Small carried the pigskin for the final 13 yards to paydirt, narrowing Houston's lead to six points heading into the decisive fourth quarter.

Keenum finished with another good performance for Houston after getting roughed up in a stunning 56-7 loss at Tulsa last week He threw the ball very effectively, going 24-for-32 passing for almost 300 yards gained through the air. Keenum threw one interception.

Despite being pressured by the Marshall defensive front pretty consistently throughout the contest, he somehow managed to avoid the rush and was never sacked, but was able to pick up an additional 44 yards rushing, including one touchdown.

Morris was 20-for-32 passing, gaining 260 yards and making one touchdwon throw for Marshall. Dariu Marshall led the Thundering Herd ground attack, with 12 carries for 66 yards and one touchdown scored.

The Cougars sacked Morris three times. Rocky Schwartz and Ken Fontenette each recorded a team-leading 10 tackles for the Houston defense.

C.J. Spillman had a game-high 16 tackles for the Herd defense.

Houston punter Chase Turner only had three opportunities to kick, but he made the most of them, averaging a stunning 51 yards per punt, including a long of 61.

Houston head coach Art Briles was relieved to get the win after a disappointing outcome last week against Tulsa.

"We went through as long and tough a week last week as I'd been through in my career, and our players responded by being focused, being intense and playing with passion and heart. I'm very proud of them, I'm proud of our crowd, I'm proud of our student body. It's a great day to be a Houston Cougar."

Regarding the opponent, Briles said, "They're Marshall, they are good. You're talking about a team that held East Carolina to 253 [yards] total offense last week and seven points [against] a team that's averaging 38 points and 484 yards a game, so we knew they had a good defense.....They can move the ball. Those guys can play now. They have a good football team, they're well coached and they have a lot of tradition and those are pretty good factors."

Briles didn't want the focus to be on going to a bowl game.

"We did a good job of blocking all that out. We didn't talk about that one time, we didn't talk about a bowl game one time. We talked about earning some respect, getting our pride back and just playing football like we knew we could play. That's really all we could control and that's what we were concerned with."

Houston's junior defensive tackle Phillip Hunt talked about the Cougar's prospects for a possible second C-USA title.

"We're focused on the [C-USA]championship. We're hoping and praying that Rice beats Tulsa and we can have another shot at it."

Cougar junior tight end Mark Hafner commented on his game-winning touchdown reception.

"We knew all week that the backers just bailed out, so anytime I released in the middle I just came out open. I came up to the free safety and just made a move and tried to beat him to the end zone. It was a crucial part of the game, I just wanted to make sure I protected the ball and didn't get stripped."

Houston senior tailback Anthony Alridge talked about the game.

"It was a big win. It was a crucial conference game for us, and depending on what Rice does next week, we have a chance of being in the conference championship. We just took care of our business today. We practiced hard and we came out and played well."

Cougar redshirt freshman QB Case Keenum was philosophical about Houston's position in the conference.

"That's kind of a big picture thing, you can always look at who's got to beat who to put us in the championship or what record is going to put us in what bowl. But right now we just have to take care of business. That's out of our control. TSU next week is under our control and we have to go out there and take care of business and do what we do."

Marshall head coach Mark Snyder discussed the difficulties his team encountered in trying to contain Keenum.

"He's a good athlete, we have to give him credit, and we got a little tired. At times we looked very un-athletic chasing him."

Snyder also talked about how Marshall's first half performance was improved upon in the second half.

"We didn't make plays in the first half. We had opportunities, but we didn't make plays. We challenged [our team] at half time to make plays. Their guys were making plays and we weren't. Then all of a sudden, guys like E.J. Wynn and Emmanuel Spann started making plays for us."

He also explained how Houston used a little trickery to get Hafner loose for some big pass completions.

"They did a good job with him. They lined him up at tackle, which isn't a traditional tight end position. They caught us off guard a couple of times and it really worked good for them."

Houston has completed it's C-USA schedule with a 6-2 mark, good for a current second place standing in the West. If Tulsa beats Rice next Saturday, the Cougars will again have a chance to win the conference championship. If Tulsa wins, they will clinch the West Division crown, and will play the East winner in the conference championship game on December 1.

Needless to say, the Cougars will be scoreboard-watching during their non-conference game next Saturday, November 24 against Texas Southern University at Robertson Stadium. Rice will be facing Tulsa at the same time about four miles away at Rice Stadium.

Although the Houston and Texas Southern campuses are only a few blocks apart, the two schools have never met on the gridiron. Texas Southern is an NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (I-AA) team that plays in the South West Athletic Conference (SWAC).

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