Looking Back at Last Time Houston Cougars Started 4-0
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Not many college football teams can say that they've already matched last year's win total, but the Houston Cougars are among the few who can.
After back-to-back 4-8 seasons, the Cougars off to a 4-0 start and look like they could make some noise in the Big 12. They've been far from perfect, and the fact that they needed overtime to beat a winless Oregon State team Friday night is concerning, but the fact that second-year head coach Willie Fritz has them playing as well as they are is quite impressive after the past few years.
In fact, the Cougars are off to their first 4-0 start in nine years. What happened that year, though? Well, it seems like as good a time as any to look back and reflect.
Houston Cougars' 4-0 Start in 2016 Fueled By Massive Upset
Heading into the 2016 season, the Cougars were expected to be pretty good. After all, they were coming off a 13-1 season where they ran through the American and upset Florida State in the Peach Bowl, so they'd already proved they were not a team to take lightly.
Even considering that, the Cougars made a statement to start the season by beating Baker Mayfield and Oklahoma 33-23 in the season opener at NRG Stadium. The defining moment of the game came early in the third quarter, when Brandon Wilson ran a missed field goal back 100 yards for an electrifying touchdown. Later in the quarter, Greg Ward Jr. hit Tyler McCloskey for a two-yard score to put the Cougars up by 16 points, and they'd hold on for one of the biggest wins in program history.
The win propelled the Cougars to No. 6 in the AP Poll, and many talked about them being the first Group of Five team to make the College Football Playoff. They would back that talk up for a few weeks, as they started 5-0 after defeating Lamar, Cincinnati, Texas State and UConn.
Unfortunately, their undefeated season came to an end with a 46-40 loss to Navy on Oct. 8, 2016. A blowout loss to SMU two weeks later would then knock them out of the AP Poll entirely, quite the disappointment after such a great start.
The later part of the season wasn't all bad, though, as the Cougars defeated No. 3 Louisville and eventual Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson on Nov. 17, 2016. However, they would then lose their final two games of the season, first against Memphis in the regular season finale and then a blowout against San Diego State in the Las Vegas Bowl.
This was Tom Herman's last season as Houston's head coach, as he took the same job at Texas after the regular season.
Unlike the 2016 team, the 2025 Cougars have yet to earn a signature win of their own. With No. 12 Texas Tech - the best team in the Big 12 - coming to H-Town Saturday night, though, they have a chance to change that very soon.
