Always love the stuff I can learn in your threads silk.
I was waiting until I could add something to the discussion to post.
I am liking Houston too on first glance and am starting to get into it.
First off Piland pretty good, but he wasn't great on the road last year. At ECU he was only 43%, but did have 4-1 ratio. At SMU he was 60%, but 0-2 ratio. Rice was neutral and he was pretty good 60% and 2-1 there. UCLA doesn't apply I don't think and he didn't play at Marshall. Houston was 0-4 in true road games if you include UCLA and some of the losses were pretty bad. He was much better on the road in 2010 (RS in '11) with a 15-5 ratio and 60%, although the game vs Memphis greatly aided those numbers.
Even if Piland is overall better at home and vs weak defenses, I still have to like Houston O potential. The OL is pretty decent, however 2 year starting G Cloud has been out (26 total starts). Even without him, only one guy is a first time starter this year (Sims) and he played in 12 last year. 3 of the starters have been recognized with honorable mention or frosh AA at some point in their careers. Combined the guys currently listed as starters have 70 starts between them, they are pretty veteran unit.
Sims and Peace are obviously gone, but I think UH still ok here. Sims was injured at times last year and top 2 guys now (Farrow and Jackson) actually combined for more carries than Sims in '12. Not sure what to take from the Southern game, but Jackson had 120y and Farrow 97y. And even without last year's #1 WR Peace, they still have two very fine WRs in Greenberry and Spencer who combined for 88 catches (Greenberry only 3 less targets than Peace and Spencer had 74 targets). Do they have a #3 WR? Maxwell was that dude vs Southern, a senior who started the final 5 last year, but only caught 10 balls.
So offensively, the Houston O should still be in good hands. How will they fair vs Temple D? ND did have 4 passes go for over 30 yards (one a short pass that Jones broke big) and Rees was 16-23-346-3-0. Temple D didn't stop or slow many last year as LV had their most yards vs Temple D (not surprisingly), but Pitt and UConn racked up their second most yards and Army, Cincy, Rutgers and Penn St all had 2nd or 3rd best yardage outputs and opponents converted 44% on 3rd down. Temple rush D was and pass eff D were worst in Big East and they only got 4 INTs 2012, although they were a decent sacking team (2.27 pg). Collectively the D wasn't good, but 2nd year LB Matakevich still playing with hair on fire.
Both teams have youth, Temple played 13 frosh last week (9 true)...Houston played 7.
I know Houston D is bad and Temple did some good things on O vs ND, but I haven't got that far yet.
, been saying this on twitter for few weeks tho. Pitt will be/is good. 7-8 wins possible
