When Art Briles left his alma-mater after five wildly successful seasons and darted for Baylor, few figured his successor to enjoy the same offensive success. But Kevin Sumlin left the Oklahoma staff to take the head coaching job and brought in Dana Holgorsen (a Texas Tech/Mike Leach protege) to be his offensive coordinator. The Cougars ended up winning eight games by increasing their scoring output from 35 to 41 points per game and the yardage from 502 to 563 per contest. That was second to C-USA rival Tulsa in all of America. Nearly every skill performer on the two-deep returns this season! Junior Case Keenum (reigning C-USA Offensive Player of the Year) fired 44 touchdowns and just 11 interceptions last fall, and his ability to run (16 rushing touchdowns in his career) make the offense borderline unfair for outmanned foes to try and stop.

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On the other side, the defense is equally inept. Oklahoma State and Air Force combined to run for 759 yards against the Cougars in back-to-back losses in September; sorry Marshall ran for 249 in a Huntington, W. Va. upset... and the pass defense gave up 755 yards combined against UTEP and Rice to close the regular season. Now star defensive end Phillip Hunt (14 sacks last year, ranking second in the nation) departs and there are many questions on the defensive line. Holes are abundant everywhere in the back seven as well. Obviously, it will be interesting to see what the linesmakers come up with as far as the totals go when Houston plays, particularly against equally-offensive minded Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and UTEP in Houston's first three lined games of the season.

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