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 Lott TrophyEd OliverDTJRRimington TrophyWill NobleCSRChuck Bednarik AwardEd OliverDTJRMaxwell AwardEd OliverDTJRBronko Nagurski TrophyEd OliverDTJROutland TrophyWill NobleCSREd OliverDTJRRay Guy AwardDane RoyPJRWuerffel TrophyMulbah CarRBJRWalter Camp AwardEd OliverDTJREarl Campbell Tyler Rose AwardD'Eriq KingQBJR
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) 1 Memphis 171 (23) 2 Houston 146 (4) 3 Navy 129 (3) 4 SMU 72 5 Tulane 68 6 Tulsa 44
Schedule
Schedule source:
Roster
Game summaries
At Rice
Arizona
At Texas Tech
Texas Southern
Tulsa
At East Carolina
At Navy
South Florida
At SMU
Temple
Tulane
At Memphis
Vs. Army (Armed Forces Bowl)
Players drafted into the NFL
1 9 Ed Oliver DT Buffalo Bills 4 129 Isaiah Johnson CB Oakland Raiders 6 200 Emeke Egbule LB Los Angeles Chargers
Rankings
References