HOUSTON – The Houston Cougars will open their season with one of the biggest games of the opening weekend in college football when they host the Oklahoma Sooners at NRG Stadium on September 3rd.
Their fall practice continues with head coach Tom Herman stressing to his players to be ready for anything on game day throughout the season.
"They were dragging a little bit and we saw that," Herman said after Thursday morning's practice.
"We blew the whistle right after stretch, put the ball down, cranked the music up and said let's go, let's play. It was a good lesson for them that you've got to be ready at a moment's notice.
"I told them I might call everybody on the team at 3:00 a.m. and call practice then," Herman said. "We don't train for game, we train for chaos and to be able to tune all the noise out and be able to perform at maximum level.
"We got that point across this morning and the kids responded and we had a good practice the rest of the way."
The Cougars, who went 13-1 last season, are heavy favorites to win the American Athletic Conference and their season opener with top-ten ranked Oklahoma will likely be their toughest test all season. open the season with top ten ranked.
"Our mantra this year is it's not enough to just live the culture," Herman said. "Most of our guys believe in it and they're living it, but we have to take the next step and that's to spread the culture.