HOUSTON vs. SAN DIEGO STATE: My beloved DESTROYER!!!! Do I BOARD you or do I.....BOMB you???!!!

I'm not trying to be a critic, because I think there's a good chance that you're right, but I think Houston backers are the one's letting one game affect their psyche.  That dismantling of Louisville only happened about a month ago, and every was watching.  Louisville and Michigan were the public's most bet teams, so it;s safe to say that most gamblers last image of Houston is their dominant performance against Louisville.  People tend to ignore that they lost to Memphis the next week.  I agree that it's a terrible match up for San Diego State, but just as you did with SDST, it's very easy to discredit Houston.  They lost to NAVY, and Memphis, but they got KILLED by SMU.  Those are three sub-par losses.  They were about 1 foot from losing to Tulsa, they struggled with Cincy until the 4th quarter, and they didnt score the last 2- 1/2 quarters against  Tulane...

"SMU could have passed or run for 500 yards on them. It shouldn't matter. This is the third best run defense in the nation. Stop letting on game override your psyche when capping these games.

That game was in the middle of October. It's the middle of December. More than enough has changed with SMU SDSU and Houston to care about SMU's run totals in that game affecting this one."

Also you keep saying that Wyoming shut their run down, which isint true.  Pumphrey may have only had 110 yards, but Penney also had 117 yards.  They had 250 yards and 3 td's.

"Applewhite played second fiddle to Simms" Not exactly. Applewhite started the vast majority of the games where the 2 of them were healthy at the same time. (btw, as per Simms, Major was a real douchebag to him when they played together) 

"Applewhite has been passed up for HC jobs for 13 years" Considering that he is only 38 years old, you are saying that he should have been a HC at 25.

"Applewhite has quite a chip on his shoulder"  This is because he became an OC in his 20's, and a HC at 38??? That's not a chip, it is gratitude. 

"The AD and alumni will most certainly be using this game to gauge the hire and Houston's future. Applewhite can't shi* the bed here" What Houston does in this game is absolutely irrelevant to Applewhite's future with the team. It's not like they will fire him if the Cougs get shut out.

Personally, I think that Applewhite was a good hire, and will be a good coach. This does not change the fact that your points to which I have responded are factually flawed. 

Never the less, good luck my friend 

And they have stopped him in his past several games to end the season (in comparision to his monstrous start) because they can sufficiently gameplan for him and the competition is superior. Go look at his game log! And now Houston can't stop him? With a run defense better than everyone on the schedule?

And they don't even have to stop him! They just need to limit him. And even at that, who is to say Houston can't cover by a TD anyway with their offense? So many outs here.

Lopez, I specifically went into detail about the SMU game in the OP for this post, in the hopes that this line of thinking would change.

That SMU loss is not as extreme as people make it out to be. Chad Morris had SMU make that game his Super Bowl. And it got him a shot at the Baylor job so it worked.

SMU went into that game at 2-3 after a grueling OT loss to Tulsa the previous game, had a bye week and was coming in against a Houston team on 8 straight weeks of play with the HC rumors just starting to fly.

Herman was a very important part of that team, particularly to Ward. Even with at that, they crushed Louisville and still went 9-3 on the year. And it is perfectly reasonable to assume they've sufficiently disassociated themselves from Herman and have the enormous benefit of having their future HC in place NOW.

This is Ward's last game as a Cougar as well. He is going in the draft. And when he does, he'll have to reinvent himself as a Terrelle Pryor type who plays WR/Special teams (too small to be a long-term NFL QB).

You think one of the best players in CFB will just lay down here in his last game?

And to those saying Wyoming stopped Pumphrey but didn't completely stop SDSU's run game:

That is correct. SDSU will get yards. That is ALL THEY DO. But if if you are a team like Houston who can score at will at times and you stop Pumphrey you will win, as Wyoming demonstrated once in a win and then fell just short (immensely tough to win a revenge game in a conference championship a couple weeks after the initial win).

Is this not the case in EVERY game when one team is better in those categories than the other? Those things are completely random and simply can't be effectively incorporated into a cap (i.e., "I am taking SDSU because I believe they will win the turnover battle" <----Can't meaningfully make this statement to support a side).   

My friend - . Give this passive aggressive mockery stance another 2 seconds before it ends.

Touche on the Applewhite chip on the shoulder point. I'll concede that.

It doesn't take away from the fact Houston has a competent HC who knows the system who will put more than usual into a bowl game to get off on the right foot to start his career.