# 2018 Houston Cougars football team

The 2018 Houston Cougars football team represented the University of Houston in the 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Cougars played their home games at TDECU Stadium in Houston, Texas, and competed in the West Division of the American Athletic Conference. They were led by second-year head coach Major Applewhite. They finished the season 8–5, 5–3 in AAC play to finish in a three-way tie for the West Division championship. After tiebreakers, they did not represent the West Division in the AAC Championship Game. They were invited to the Armed Forces Bowl where they lost to Army by a score of 14–70, in the process tying records for the most points given up (70) and the largest margin-of-loss (56) in NCAA bowl game history.
On December 30, Houston fired Applewhite after 2 seasons.

## Preseason
### Award watch lists

Listed in the order that they were released
| Award | Player | Position | Year |
| Lott Trophy | Ed Oliver | DT | JR |
| Rimington Trophy | Will Noble | C | SR |
| Chuck Bednarik Award | Ed Oliver | DT | JR |
| Maxwell Award | Ed Oliver | DT | JR |
| Bronko Nagurski Trophy | Ed Oliver | DT | JR |
| Outland Trophy | Will Noble | C | SR |
| Outland Trophy | Ed Oliver | DT | JR |
| Ray Guy Award | Dane Roy | P | JR |
| Wuerffel Trophy | Mulbah Car | RB | JR |
| Walter Camp Award | Ed Oliver | DT | JR |
| Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award | D'Eriq King | QB | JR |

### AAC media poll

The AAC media poll was released on July 24, 2018, with the Cougars predicted to finish in second place in the AAC West Division.
Media poll (West) :
| Predicted finish | Team | Votes (1st place) |
| 1 | Memphis | 171 (23) |
| 2 | Houston | 146 (4) |
| 3 | Navy | 129 (3) |
| 4 | SMU | 72 |
| 5 | Tulane | 68 |
| 6 | Tulsa | 44 |

## Schedule

| Date | Time | Opponent | Site | TV | Result | Attendance |
| September 1 | 11:00 a.m. | at Rice* | Rice StadiumHouston, TX (rivalry) | CBSSN Ben Holden, Jay Feely, Tina Cervasio | W 45–27 | 26,390 |
| September 8 | 11:00 a.m. | Arizona* | TDECU StadiumHouston, TX | ABC/ESPN2 Steve Levy, Todd McShay, Paul Carcaterra | W 45–18 | 32,534 |
| September 15 | 3:00 p.m. | at Texas Tech* | Jones AT&T StadiumLubbock, TX (rivalry) | Fox Business Network/FOX Joe Davis, Brady Quinn, Bruce Feldman | L 49–63 | 53,484 |
| September 22 | 7:00 p.m. | Texas Southern* | TDECU StadiumHouston, TX | ESPN3 Joel Meyers, Forrest Conoly | W 70–14 | 29,970 |
| October 4 | 7:00 p.m. | Tulsa | TDECU StadiumHouston, TX (rivalry) | ESPN Dave Flemming, Greg McElroy, Laura Rutledge | W 41–26 | 29,823 |
| October 13 | 6:00 p.m. | at East Carolina | Dowdy–Ficklen StadiumGreenville, NC | CBSSN Dave Ryan, Corey Chavous | W 42–20 | 29,851 |
| October 20 | 2:30 p.m. | at Navy | Navy–Marine Corps Memorial StadiumAnnapolis, MD | CBSSN John Sadak, Randy Cross, Sheehan Stanwick Burch | W 49–36 | 33,924 |
| October 27 | 2:30 p.m. | No. 21 South Florida | TDECU StadiumHouston, TX | ABC/ESPN2 Mark Neely, John Congemi, Alex Chappell | W 57–36 | 31,631 |
| November 3 | 6:00 p.m. | at SMU | Gerald J. Ford StadiumDallas, TX (rivalry) | ESPNU/ESPNews Mike Couzens, Kirk Morrison, Alyssa Lang | L 31–45 | 23,654 |
| November 10 | 6:00 p.m. | Temple | TDECU StadiumHouston, TX | CBSSN Dave Ryan, Randy Cross | L 49–59 | 30,862 |
| November 15 | 7:00 p.m. | Tulane | TDECU StadiumHouston, TX | ESPN Dave Flemming, Jordan Rodgers, Laura Rutledge | W 48–17 | 24,209 |
| November 23 | 11:00 a.m. | at Memphis | Liberty Bowl Memorial StadiumMemphis, TN | ABC Beth Mowins, Anthony Becht, Rocky Boiman | L 31–52 | 27,790 |
| December 22 | 2:30 p.m. | vs. Army* | Amon G. Carter StadiumFort Worth, TX (Armed Forces Bowl) | ESPN Chris Cotter, Emmanuel Acho, Jim Mora, Quint Kessenich | L 14–70 | 44,738 |
| *Non-conference gameHomecomingRankings from AP Poll (and CFP Rankings, after October 30) - Released prior to gameAll times are in Central time |||||||
    Schedule Source:

## Game summaries
### At Rice

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Cougars | 3 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 45 |
| Owls | 7 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 27 |

### Arizona

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Wildcats | 0 | 0 | 10 | 8 | 18 |
| Cougars | 21 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 45 |

### At Texas Tech

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Cougars | 21 | 7 | 14 | 7 | 49 |
| Red Raiders | 14 | 21 | 14 | 14 | 63 |

### Texas Southern

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Tigers | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 14 |
| Cougars | 14 | 28 | 7 | 21 | 70 |

### Tulsa

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Golden Hurricane | 13 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 26 |
| Cougars | 7 | 10 | 0 | 24 | 41 |

### At East Carolina

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Cougars | 14 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 42 |
| Pirates | 0 | 3 | 3 | 14 | 20 |

### At Navy

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Cougars | 7 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 49 |
| Midshipmen | 10 | 14 | 0 | 12 | 36 |

### South Florida

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| No. 21 Bulls | 0 | 21 | 15 | 0 | 36 |
| Cougars | 14 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 57 |

### At SMU

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| No. 17 Cougars | 0 | 14 | 3 | 14 | 31 |
| Mustangs | 10 | 21 | 7 | 7 | 45 |

### Temple

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Owls | 14 | 14 | 21 | 10 | 59 |
| Cougars | 7 | 7 | 21 | 14 | 49 |

### Tulane

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Green Wave | 6 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 17 |
| Cougars | 14 | 17 | 10 | 7 | 48 |

### At Memphis

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Cougars | 7 | 14 | 10 | 0 | 31 |
| Tigers | 3 | 14 | 14 | 21 | 52 |

### Vs. Army (Armed Forces Bowl)

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Cougars | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 14 |
| No. 22 Black Knights | 14 | 28 | 14 | 14 | 70 |

## Players drafted into the NFL

| Round | Pick | Player | Position | NFL Club |
| 1 | 9 | Ed Oliver | DT | Buffalo Bills |
| 4 | 129 | Isaiah Johnson | CB | Oakland Raiders |
| 6 | 200 | Emeke Egbule | LB | Los Angeles Chargers |

## Rankings

Ranking movements Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking — = Not ranked RV = Received votes :
| | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week |
| Poll | Pre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Final |
| AP | RV | RV | RV | — | — | — | — | RV | RV | RV | 17 | RV | — | RV | — | — |
| Coaches | RV | RV | RV | RV | — | — | — | RV | RV | RV | 17 | RV | — | — | — | |
| CFP | Not released | Not released | Not released | Not released | Not released | Not released | Not released | Not released | Not released | Not released | — | — | — | — | — | Not released |