The Tiger football team will have an opportunity to build on its momentum by winning its first road game of the season Saturday when Memphis travels to play Houston.
Last week, the Tigers beat Southern Mississippi, 22-17, and a win over the 0-4 Cougars will make for the team’s second two-game winning-streak of the season.
Though playing a team that hasn’t won a game all season may seem like a potential cakewalk, head coach Tommy West said he isn’t looking past Houston.
“I know Houston’s team will be a hungry football team that’s going to fight like crazy to get a win,” West said.
Last season, the Cougars won 33-30 over Memphis in a triple--overtime thriller at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. The Oct. 21 loss was the first overtime game in Memphis football history.
West said a win this week is crucial for his team and its conference standing. He also stressed the importance of his guys staying on task and said he doesn’t want his team to have any mental breakdowns before or during the game.
“We’re not the kind of team that can just waltz into a game and not be totally focused and beat anybody,” West said. “This is a critical week for us.”
When the Tigers won back-to-back games earlier this season, both wins came at home. West said he’s concerned about how well his team will fare on the road.
“It’s never easy to get wins on the road,” he said. “I think we’ll find out a lot about our team this week.
“We showed that we could handle adversity coming back from the loss at Louisville and coming back and winning a home game. We’ll have to see how we can handle a little bit of prosperity.”
Houston head coach Dana Dimel said his main concern leading into Saturday’s contest will be how well the Cougars hold up against the Tiger defense.
“We know that the big thing to do to stop them is to try and make sure their defense doesn’t create a lot of turnovers,” Dimel said.
