Houston focused on wins in Big 12

This is part of The O’Colly’s series on the four new members of the Big 12 Conference.

On July 1, four schools officially joined the Big 12 as the conference prepares for the exits of Texas and Oklahoma.

Among the four additions -- BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF -- Houston is bringing some more Texas flare, contributing to the conference in different ways than other schools in the Lone Star State.

As for where Houston’s athletics programs are at, there’s no talking about the Cougars without mentioning men’s basketball. Since taking the reins in 2014, coach Kelvin Sampson has positioned Houston as one of the top programs in the nation with his recruiting and hard-nosed, defense-first style of coaching.

In nine seasons with Sampson, the Cougars are 232-74 (.758), having reached the Sweet 16 four times and the Final Four in 2021. Sampson has continuously done well in March throughout his time at Houston.

Sampson himself is familiar with the conference, too. He coached Oklahoma from 19942006 and was named National Coach of the Year in 1995.

“You know, self-esteem and self-confidence are so important in athletics,” Sampson said. “And now that we’re in the Big 12, I think it gives our fans and our alumni and our boosters the chance to stick their chest out and look at the Baylor, Texas Tech, Texas A&M (and) Texas fans in this state and say, ‘You know, we’re back. We’re back with you.’ So, it’s big for our university and obviously going to be great for our city.”

With all that the Cougars have accomplished on the court in recent seasons, the Big 12 bolstered its basketball status with the addition of Houston.

What Houston will bring on the gridiron is where it becomes uncertain.

Aside from finishing with a 12-2 record and a No. 17 ranking in the AP Poll in 2021, the Cougars have struggled. Last season they finished 8-5 with a win against Louisiana in the Independence Bowl. Prior to that, they finished 3-5 in 2020 and 4-8 in 2019.

At the helm for Houston football is Dana Holgorsen, who between several stints in the Big 12, was the offensive coordinator at Houston from 2008-09. Holgorsen spent 2000-07 as an assistant in multiple positions at Texas Tech, then joined OSU as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on Mike Gundy’s staff in 2010 after the UH gig. Most recently, Holgorsen coached at West Virginia from 2011-18, when he also led the Mountaineers into the Big 12, just as he will do for Houston. He rejoined the Cougars in 2019.

During prolonged heat waves, increased demand for water and electricity across residential, commercial and agricultural sectors strains existing infrastructure and raises costs for consumers— especially when these resources are already limited, as they are through much of the southern plains: The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, urged users to limit their energy consumption in the face of record-breaking demand on June 20; severe storms in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana caused wide-spread power outages, leaving residents to face sweltering temperatures without air conditioning for several days; meanwhile, 41% of the southern plains region is still under drought conditions, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System.

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