Houston vs Southern: The Matchups That Will Decide The Game

Houston Cougars football announced its return to prominence last year with a 10-win season, a bowl win and a final ranking in the top 25. That makes this year's football season highly anticipated, especially with a successful transfer portal and high school recruiting period that is expected to raise the ceiling of the program.

Houston begins the critical 2026 season with two non-conference games at home. The second game of the season is against the Southern Jaguars from the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). Southern just went through a complete rebuild this offseason after a 2-10 record last year, tied for the worst mark in the conference.

The Jaguars made an impressive hire of former NFL running back and Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk as their new head coach. He brought in an entirely new staff and the team is expected to look different with a new identity in 2026.

These are the interesting matchups that will decide the game between Houston and Southern.

Battle of Coaching Staffs

The biggest strength for Southern at this point with new players across the board is the legendary coaching staff. The Jaguars have assembled a group with an incredible amount of experience.

Besides Faulk, who is considered one of the greatest running backs of all time, Southern also has Todd Lyght, a former 12-year NFL veteran at cornerback, as defensive coordinator. Lyght was a two-time consensus All-American at Notre Dame and was the fifth overall pick in 1991. Lyght has previous experience as a defensive backs coach with the Philadelphia Eagles and Notre Dame.

Faulk was the running backs coach at Colorado last season. Curtis Johnson, a 41-year coaching veteran across all levels of the sport, is the associate head coach. Johnson won a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints in 2009 and a National Championship with Miami in 2001 as a wide receivers coach. He also was the head coach at Tulane and the Houston Gambers of the United Football League.

Houston also has a great coaching staff led by coach Willie Fritz, considered one of the best coaches in the game. Fritz has turned countless programs around and won multiple coach of year honors. Offensive coordinator Slade Nagle was with Fritz at Tulane and helped revitalize the Cougars offense while defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong is considered a rising star talent and maintained a high level of defense for Houston.

It will be quite interesting to see how the coaches game plan against each other, and the battle of Nagle against Lyght's defense that looked good during spring ball. Houston certainly has the talent advantage.

Houston's Defense vs Southern's Offense

The Jaguars offense is a significant weakness for Southern. There is a lot of uncertainty on that side of the ball with no starting quarterback announced at the moment. There's still a quarterback competition. That group struggled to put up points many times last season.

Meanwhile, Houston's defense kept up its level of play from last season as one of the better units in the Big 12. The Cougars forced turnovers, were disciplined and generally were a reliable group. Houston has an opportunity to feast on this offense and take over the game. The Cougars' secondary looks strong as well as some pass rushers to get after the quarterback.

Houston allowed only 33 points total in its three non-conference games last season, including a shutout over Stephen F. Austin in the season opener. That could be on the cards in this one.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow