Written by Chris Abshire at Bloguin
If you want to understand exactly why Tom Herman is already a hot commodity for some major coaching openings just 12 games into his career, it was all on display Friday.
Coming off a loss at Connecticut last week, Herman said: “Nowhere on our goals did it say we wanted to go 12-0. It just says compete for and win our conference championship.”
The Cougars looked like a team that not only heard that message but fully absorbed it, stuffing Navy’s vaunted triple-option game on a short week and playing focused football throughout in a 52-31 romp. The win puts Houston in the AAC Championship Game, a significant notch on Herman’s belt in his first year as a head coach.
He and his staff may have also provided a clear blueprint on how to slow down the Midshipmen’s refined rushing attack when you only have a single week of preparation, and off a crushing loss at that. The Naval Academy still piled up 31 points and well over 400 yards of offense, but 312 of those yards came through the air, playing from behind.
It doesn’t seem like an accident.
Herman said the staff exposed the Cougar defense to at least one of Navy’s myriad triple-option formations each week going back to spring practice. Since the start of October, it was ratcheted up to entire Sunday sessions — pad-less ones — focused on Navy. He knew a Black Friday game off a Saturday night road trip was a problem waiting to happen… unless he was prepared in advance.
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