David Piland was never ready to be throwing 61 passes a game, to have everythingput on him.
Rice coach David Bailiff somehow enjoyed a more successful season than the much,more talented Houston Cougars.
UH coach Kevin Sumlin never changed his stubborn ways even without aprogram-carrying quarterback.
Coming into this college football season, no one even imagined that Rice University and coach Dave Bailiff could put together a better season than the University of Houston and Kevin Sumlin. That would be like expectingSoul Kitchento beat Harry Potter at the box office.
But with the dust settling on both the Owls' and Cougars' seasons, that's exactly what happened.
Sure, Houston (5-7) finished with one more win than Rice (4-8), but taken in terms of expectations, talent and money pumped into the programs, there is no doubt that Bailiff's bunch wins out. And it's really not even that close.
The Owls did more with less, showed more grit than a Houston program that pictures itself as a national player, played better in the clutch and even beat the Cougars head to head. While Houston ended its season on a four-game losing streak — with only one Bowl Championship Series opponent, and a not very good one at that, among those four games — Rice managed to win two straight, including Saturday's come-from-behind victory against UAB, and finish a respectable 3-3 over its final six games.
Sure, Houston played a tougher schedule because (the Cougars are supposed to be worthy of playing a tougher schedule and this slate wasn't even exactly worthy of a Top 25 contender). Sure, the season-ending injuries to lifeline quarterback Case Keenum and his backup Cotton Turner on that disastrous Southern California trip would have changed any program's season.
But the truth is that with more than enough time to do it, Sumlin and the Cougars never effectively adjusted, never came close to righting themselves to the new reality. Instead, Sumlin had the fourth quarterback he played this season (David Piland) throw 61 passes in Lubbock Saturday night. Sumlin stubbornly stuck to his Case plan even though Piland showed long before those three interceptions against Texas Tech that he wasn't close to ready to have games put on his arm.
Bailiff, on the other hand, kept the Owls from folding after a 1-5 start, developed a new weapon in freshman running back Jeremy Eddington late in the season, realized that Michigan transfer Sam McGuffie isn't an every-down workhouse, found ways for a team without a ton of talent to improve.
Sumlin didn't forget how to coach overnight. He's still big time while Bailiff is a small fish. Houston is still fortunate to have him. But to say this wasn't Sumlin's finest hour is putting it mildly.
When the coach reexamines this season, he needs to take a long look at his own stubbornness, the sense of arrogance that sometimes seems to pervade the Cougars program (the type of thing that allowed Rice to stun Houston 34-31 in the first place). That's what you do when you've clearly been bested by a crosstown inferior.
The Gold Over America Tour cast performing on NBC's "America's Got Talent."
First came the gold medals, now comes the Gold Over America Tour, the gymnastics mega-show headlined by Simone Biles, currently touring 30 cities around the United States and coming to Houston’s Toyota Center on Saturday, October 19.
Joining Biles are fellow Paris Olympic champions Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, along with bronze medal-winning men’s team members Paul Juda, Brody Malone, Asher Hong, and Fred Richard, plus other gymnastics superstars. Adding men to the G.O.A.T. showcase is a new twist; the 2021 tour, post-Tokyo Olympics, had a cast made up entirely of women.
It’s a change that Biles hopes will help elevate men’s gymnastics around the country.
Juda, for one, couldn’t be more grateful. The Olympic medalist is still riding the wave of excitement from winning the first USA men’s team medal in 16 years, along with having achieved his own dream of competing in the Olympic individual all-around final.
We recently chatted with Juda, who took us behind the scenes of the G.O.A.T. show, the squad, and life on the tour bus as a college student missing classes to travel the country like a rock star.
CultureMap: At the Olympics this summer, the whole vibe of men’s and women’s USA gymnastics seemed happy and supportive of each other. How are you carrying that camaraderie into performing together as a troupe in the Gold Over America Tour?
Paul Juda: I think during the whole Olympic experience we just had a lot of joy. We had a lot of of fun outside of those two hours of competition. So the competition in and of itself was kind of like a "mission critical," and we were pretty focused, but we still tried to keep it light.
On this, there's no real competition; we’re here to put on the best show possible for the audience. And as long as we can kind of keep leaning in on each other like our support system, the shows are going to come easier because it's going to be a long tour. It's going to be hard, but fun together.
I can already see even just on the the two nights and three days that we've been here together, we've had a lot of fun. We're all best friends here, and we're going to bring that kind of energy to the stage.
CM: The last Gold Over America Tour was all women - and the theme was very much female empowerment, and girls as superheroes. Now that men are included, what can we expect from the show this time?
PJ: I think it's awesome (men are included) and I'm not even gonna lie, this tour just got, like, a million times better after making a medal. I'm really excited to get to do the show. It's going to be a lot of back and forth (between men and women). Yeah, we're doing some gymnastics; we're trying to learn a little bit of dancing. We've got lights, we've got a lot of songs, and we're bouncing off of each other's stories. There's going to be a lot of really fun, fun parts. (Note: Here's a preview.)
CM: Figure skating has shows like “Stars on Ice” and the old “Ice Capades” that they can join after the Olympics to perform for audiences. Would you like to see something like that for gymnasts, who often don’t get to really “entertain” audiences?
PJ: Yeah, (in gymnastics) we use the human body to all of its maximum capability, and (learning) dance moves, I enjoy using a different side of my brain. I'm a guy who would also enjoy a musical or a Broadway show or something like that, just for the element of like, “Wow. Look at the choreography and how they're able to add the music and the lights and everything in the whole production.”
And then you couple it with the fact that we have, like, extraordinary strength and flexibility and we can kind of do almost circus-like events, but then also add in a touch of difficulty - like hey, okay, they're not just acrobats; they also spent 20 years doing this sport.
I feel like it's the ultimate show. You know, it's some dance lights, some music, a storyline, you can watch your favorite athlete and then see him or her in a kind of different light. Now the athlete literally just gets to have fun out there. I wouldn't see why people wouldn't want to see more of this type of show.
CM: There’s so much buzz around gymnastics during the Olympics. How do you keep those fans interested the other three years in between, especially men’s gymnastics?
PJ: I'm hoping this tour does that, and I'm also confident, like anything that we do afterwards on the global stage (like "pommel horse guy" Stephen Nedoroscik competing on Dancing With the Stars), I hope people are like, "Oh yeah, I see them doing that. But I also remember they represent men's gymnastics."
Paul Juda on parallel bars for the University of Michigan team.Photo by John Cheng
Q: A lot of cast members are in college, including yourself (a graduate student), and you’re also captain of the University of Michigan Men’s Gymnastics team. How will you balance your studies and college athletics commitments while you’re on tour?
PJ: (He holds up a notebook with a calendar planner filled in.) This. I'm looking at my schedule today, I've got a weekly reflection. I've got a case to work on. I've got a data analytics assignment, a lecture to watch, and a reading quiz to do, so, it's a lot for sure. Hopefully after this tour I can come back and be in a really good place with my team. It's really bittersweet. (Teammate Fred Richard and I) we were able to have our only really big tailgate of the year for the Michigan football game last week. And I'm just so heartbroken because that that's like my favorite part of the year.
I think my team will be okay, though, and I've left some excellent people in charge … phenomenal captains, and I have no doubt that they'll keep the team on pace, and if they need anything from me, they'll text me.
And on top of that, in terms of school, I think honestly, if anything, it’ll just keep me doing the right things. I got to go to bed early to wake up early and get some homework done, that's probably for the best. I’ll try to do some lectures on the tour bus and stuff.
CM:The reception in Houston - hometown of Simone Biles and adopted hometown of Jordan Chiles - will be nuts, and of course Fort Worth is where the last National Championships was held this past summer. What cities are you most looking forward to?
PJ: Chicago and Detroit are going to be my two main places. I've got a lot of people coming for the Detroit show from University of Michigan, and then Chicago, that’s where I'm from. Every time that I've visited Texas, I really enjoy Texas. We'll have a lot of fun. I'm excited to see the Texans come out and specifically in that Austin area, we've got a lot of people there.
CM: Well, don’t forget your cowboy hat.
PJ: Alright!
Note: This interview was edited for clarity and brevity. The Gold Over America Tour, presented by Athleta, will take place at 7:30 pm October 19 at the Toyota Center in Houston. For tickets ($35-$500) and more information, visit the website.