CINCINNATI — Not everybody is interested in No. 6 Houston making a run to the College Football Playoff.
That includes Oklahoma, Notre Dame and every serious playoff contender in the Power 5 that doesn’t want the Cougars to get one of those four playoff chairs. On Thursday, Cincinnati was at the top of that list in the American Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
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The Bearcats (2-1, 1-1 AAC) took a four-point lead before the Cougars (3-0, 1-0) responded with four fourth-quarter TDs in a 40-16 win at Nippert Stadium.
"We got a target on our back,” Houston coach Tom Herman said. “There’s no doubt, and we’ve got to learn to play with that target on our back. Those guys have earned that. They've earned that respect. They've earned everybody's best shot.”
They’ve also earned a shot — this shot — at the playoff. The Cougars are now 16-1 under Herman and creating a very real conversation with each win. This Group of 5 school could crash the playoff party at the expense of one of the Power 5 conferences.
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You have to respect it. You almost have to pull for it. The irony here is the school that once lost the NCAA men’s basketball championship as the ultimate favorite against North Carolina State in the 1983 Final Four could be the ultimate spoiler in the four-team playoff in football.
Considering that college football isn’t a fit for glass slippers, this accomplishment could be more amazing on so many levels.
Look at the champions club since the beginning of the BCS era. Alabama, Florida State, Ohio State, LSU, USC and Florida have multiple national titles. Tennessee, Oklahoma, Miami, Texas and Auburn have one each.
We try to conjure up underdog stories such as Auburn in 2010 and Ohio State in 2014. Auburn didn’t have a championship roster, but it had a Heisman Trophy winner and future NFL MVP. Ohio State had a third-string quarterback, but it also had a championship roster full of NFL guys. Those are big-time programs. Anybody can have one big year.
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Houston needs two big years just to get a fair look. The Cougars aren’t supposed to make the College Football Playoff even if it does go undefeated. The BCS didn’t allow for nine undefeated teams from non-BCS conferences to get close.
Houston has no margin for error. Boise State outscored its opponents by 300 points in the regular season in 2011. The Broncos also lost 36-35 to No. 24 TCU. That one point meant the difference between a shot at the BCS championship and the Las Vegas Bowl.
Houston can’t look ahead. Cincinnati — which once went 12-0 as a member of the Big East but finished third in the BCS standings in 2009 — looked the part of a spoiler for a while. It had a 16-12 lead in the fourth quarter, and that’s just the first AAC team that’s going to sell out in an effort to derail Houston. There’s a long way to that nonconference showdown against Louisville.
Houston has to respond with style points. The Cougars did that with a huge fourth quarter against the Bearcats. That helped offset three turnovers.
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“Exemplary,” Herman said before launching into a full description of that fourth quarter. “A veteran team and a team that’s been in big games, and a lot of players have played in some key moments for us. That’s the mark of a really good team.”
Houston is a really good team that will get run through the hypothetical machine. Should it root for Oklahoma to win out and have the drop on the Sooners? Or should it root for Ohio State to beat Oklahoma so the Sooners have two losses and strength of schedule doesn’t come into play? What’s better for the Cougars?
“Every game we win is better for us,” Herman said. “I don’t care what anybody in the rest of the country does. I care about us.”
That’s the best bet, and a good one considering his track record so far, even with Big 12 expansion and Herman’s future also constant topics of conversation.
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Houston operates on an impossible standard, but it’s one the team continues to meet on the field. Greg Ward Jr. is playing through a shoulder injury and leads an offense that averages 38.3 points and 475.7 yards per game. Ed Oliver and Steven Taylor lead a defense that has allowed just 1.5 yards per carry through three games.
“That’s our No. 1 goal,” Taylor said. “Stop the run. Hands down.”
Houston appears ready to take that shot — and it would be a bigger story than any Cinderella run to the Final Four. This is a sport where the Phi Slamma Jammas play each other every year.
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Not everybody is interested in that happening, even if it would be the most interesting story in college football in decades.
The closer Houston gets, the bigger that target will get. Just don’t tell the Cougars that.
“We’re not worried about it,” Ward Jr. said. “We’re not worried about no target on our back. That’s not going to change the way we prepare.”
