Is it already December?! Bobby and Sam return off of Thanksgiving week to discuss the following Houston Cougar sports topics:

• The dismissal of former UH football OC Kevin Barbay, why it happened and where Willie Fritz may be looking next for the replacement
• An encouraging, but still flawed performance to end the 2024 football season at BYU
• Men's Hoops' tough week in Vegas at the Players Era Event
• And a week that truly might represent "rock bottom" for Women's Hoops

A little early release, pre-Thanksgiving breaking news as Bobby discusses UH dismissing football offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay and possible replacements for the position.

Bobby and Sam have both the unenviable and enviable task of discussing the following topics on this week's pawdcast (w/time stamps included):

• 1:49- Thanksgiving food talk
• 6:33- Recapping football vs. Baylor
• 44:28- Previewing football @ BYU
• 57:08- Recapping MBB vs. Hofstra
• 1:06:44- Previewing MBB @ the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas
• 1:14:28- Volleyball's week that was/will be

The boys are back with not all bad news in the world of Houston Cougar sports on the menu for discussion, but it certainly isn't all good news either here in mid-November. See below for the time stamped breakdown of this week pawd:

3:30- Blue chip 2025 point guard Kingston Flemings commits to men's hoops

9:34- UL-Lafeyette recap/Hofstra preview

25:21- Arizona recap

56:25- Baylor preview

1:05:29- Volleyball

1:10:27- Women's hoops

The boys return about 24 hours earlier for the usual weekly, heaping helping of Houston Cougar pawdcast goodness, talking about all of the following sports topics of recent relevance:

• Men's Hoops learns some tough lessons & still shows some encouraging signs from a marquee match-up and close loss to the #11 Auburn Tigers
• Previewing a potential statement game for football on the road at Arizona, with the Coogs' looking to stay on schedule for bowl eligibility
• Volleyball has extreme highs and lows over 2 Big 12 matches in the last week
• Women's basketball continues to find a Laila Blair-less early season schedule difficult
• Our longest ever Tennis corner: recapping 2 different events the Coogs competed at, with officiating critiques and some positive notes to end the fall season on

The boys are back, with the genuinely joyful task of discussing the 24-19 Houston Cougar football upset of #17/#15 Kansas State, how it happened and what it means along with the following Cougar sports topics:

• The triumphant return of men's basketball, with a dominant win to open over Jackson State and a big match-up with #11 Auburn waiting over the weekend
• Quick Big 12 football thoughts for the Cougar bye week
• Volleyball wins back to back in conference play!
• Women's basketball has a... less triumphant opener
• Swim & Dive and Tennis updates!

There's nothing quite like a Houston Cougar football win, even one that wasn't pretty or easy as UH won a 17-14 defensive struggle against the Utah Utes, which the boys discuss in detail along with the following Cougar topics:

• Previewing the K State Wildcats, with help from honored repeat guest Scott McFarland of the great Cats pod "Boscoe's Boys"
• Thoughts from last Sunday's men's hoops charity exhibition vs. Texas A&M
• Previewing the 2024-25 Cougar women's hoops season
• Volleyball's same story against a top 25 opponent, along with a redemptive road win
• Soccer is finally done, what can be done to fix a program that's won 4 conference games in 3 seasons under this head coach
• An encouraging fall performance from men's golf

To give those of y'all who don't listen a taste of what we're doing weekly on the Patreon feed: here's the latest instant react episode, from last Saturday's 17-14 Cougar win over the Utah Utes.

Mama said there'd be days like this, Cougar football follows up their most complete win with a disheartening road no show against a hungry Kansas team. Bobby and Sam break down the good and mostly bad from the 42-14 loss at Arrowhead Stadium from last Saturday in addition to the following topics:

• The defensive wizardry and offensive inepitude of Utah football
• What we have our eye on for the upcoming men's basketball scrimmage vs Texas A&M
• Volleyball has a tough Arizona swing and a top 25 win opportunity
• Soccer... is almost done for 2024
• Bobby makes the case for why YOU should be getting on the Women's Golf bandwagon right now

Its truly a classic pawd, the boys are back for a meaty 100ish minute episode consisting of the following Houston Cougar sports topics:

• Previewing the 2024-25 Cougar men's basketball season with expectations, returning experience, and excitement galore
• Off a much needed bye week, previewing Cougar football's next opponent: the Kansas Jayhawks
• Volleyball's big, heart stopping win over Iowa St & a tough Arizona road swing to come
• We finally have a reason to be positive for 1 episode about Soccer
• Both golf programs were in action, the men at the Big 12 match play tournament and the women at the Illini Invitational @ Medinah
• Tennis' weekend in Ft Worth at the ITA TX Regional Championship, with Bobby giving an in person report of some of the action

Turns out, wins are really fun to talk about! Bobby and Sam return to dive into everything that happened in Cougar football's 30-19 upset win over TCU in Ft. Worth, with little picture and big picture takeaways galore from an incredibly morale boosting victory.

Unfortunately, the big story is shutout loss by Cougar football, a 20-0 defeat to the Iowa State Cyclones that saw a surplus of offensive futility and an unfortunate waste of a bounceback defensive performance. Bobby & Sam recap the ISU game, preview the TCU game with help from Jamie Plunkett of Horned Frog Blitz and the Frogs Insider podcast helps us preview the opponent and the guys also dive into these other Cougar topics:

• Release of the Big 12 men's and women's basketball schedules, our most interesting match-ups
• Volleyball opens conference play with a win & has their most encouraging week in over a month
• Soccer scores a goal against a conference opponent and they can never take that away from us
• Quick Golf & Tennis corners

While losing football games are scientifically proven to be less fun to talk about than their winning counterparts, the boys return to discuss a disappointing 34-0 loss by the Coogs to Cincy, how it happened and look ahead to a fearsome Big 12 home opener vs Iowa St along with a packed episode of Cougar topics featuring the following:

• Volleyball drops another 5-set heartbreaker in the last weekend of non-conference play. What that all means & how the Coogs will deal with K State and Kansas to open Big 12 play
• Soccer finds a new rock bottom... but hey those scarves are a nice fan giveaway
• The 2024-25 debut of 'Golf Corner' with both the women's and men's programs opening their fall season in the past few weeks
• Aaaaaand the 2024-25 debut of 'Tennis Corner' as Santa Strombacha represents the Coogs at the ITA All-American Championship and several other Cougar teammates also begin their fall seasons in Waco.

The boys are back, thankfully not to talk about a 2nd straight Bayou Bucket loss among the following Houston Cougar sports topics:

• Reviewing the many highs from a dominant 33-7 Cougar football win to get the 1st win of the Willie Fritz era & return the Bayou Bucket to Cullen Boulevard
• Previewing the Big 12 opener against the Cincy Bearcats
• Isiah Harwell becomes the latest (and highest rated ever) commit to commit to Kelvin Sampson's program
• Bobby's in person thoughts from watching Cougar volleyball up in Dallas to close out an expected tough week against a gauntlet of top 25 opponents
• Soccer & Tennis updates!

The boys, including Bobby fresh off of a plane, return to discuss a near miss loss by Houston Cougar football to the Oklahoma Sooners, among other worthwhile UH topics in a meaty 100+ minutes of pawd goodness:

• What we liked and didn't like from Saturday's heartbreakingly close, 16-12 defensive struggle loss at Oklahoma that revealed where the Coogs look quite good and where they have a long, long way to go (plus a couple of controversial calls)
• Previewing the Rice Owls and how they can re-gain the Bayou Bucket, PLUS Matt Bartlett from At the Roost joins to give the Rice perspective on week 3
• Volleyball has an uncharacteristic non-conference loss on the home opening weekend & looks ahead to a week with many opportunities for resume-building wins

Well, that wasn't what we hoped for, was it? The boys return to talk about everything they liked (yes, believe it or not some things) and didn't like (lots of stuff) from a humbling 27-7 season opening loss to UNLV. 

There were also the following topics on offer:

• Previewing the week 2 opponents: the #15 Oklahoma Sooners and what they look like
• Evaluating the success (or lack thereof) from the week 1 game picks and trying to do better in week 2
• Positive weeks for Cougar volleyball and soccer, as the former opens their 2024 home slate this week at the Flo Hyman Classic

ITS HERE! Two sports weeks we've been looking forward to for a while, with the following topics as part of the veritable buffet of Pawd happenings:

• Mike Grimala of the Las Vegas Sun gives the guys an inside look at a hotly anticipated season from the Coogs' week 1 opponents: UNLV. 
• The guys take a look at what the Coogs need to do on both sides of the ball, key players/position groups for Saturday's game
• Debuting this season's weekly UH pick 'em, henceforth known as: "Down with the Pick-ness"
• Previewing the 2024 Cougar volleyball season, who will be the biggest contributors, why this team was picked where they were in the Big 12 preseason and their opening slate of games in Omaha

THIRD WARD RACQUET CLUB STORE: https://third-ward-racquet-club.printify.me/products

The long-awaited UH athletic director position has finally been filled! The boys discuss new AD Eddie Nuñez, what he did as AD at the University of New Mexico and how that experience could help him in his new role in the Third Ward.

AND preview season is still in full swing, as the boys preview the 2024 Cougar defense & special teams with some select discussion questions/topics.

Plus, actual Cougar sports to talk about... which is the nicest thing we can say right now about Cougar soccer.

THIRD WARD RACQUET CLUB STORE: https://third-ward-racquet-club.printify.me/products

Martin Marroquin's "So You Want to Work In College Football": https://mahrowkeen.medium.com/so-you-want-to-work-in-college-football-201a8be02898

We're BACK, mere weeks away from the start of the college football season and mere hours away from the start of the 2024-25 Houston Cougar athletics season, with these topics to kick around:

• Previewing the 2024 Houston Cougar football offense, what we are optimistic about, how we think it will look, standout players, storylines, and question marks
• Martin Marroquin, former UH football assistant director of scouting, joins the pawd to tell his unique story and give the pawd insight on what goes into evaluating players in a Division 1 football program
• Previewing a pivotal year 3 of the Jaime Frias era for UH soccer as the team opens its season (and the athletics year generally) this week

At last, we have a brand new, 10th (!!!) season of the Pawd to debut and we do so in our customary fashion, with a couple of news item appetizers to kick us off:

• Making at least 1 prediction about every single Houston Cougar intercollegiate sports team for the 2024-25 season and reviewing our 2023-24 bold predictions
• The football non-conference schedule of the next few years takes shape and pondering the future of the Bayou Bucket game with Rice
• A quick round-up of Cougar current athletes/alumni at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games

The boys have reached the end of Season 9! And what better way to commemorate a UH athletics and pawd season in the books than the 7th annual Paw-scar awards, commemorating the best athletes, teams and moments of the 2023-24 season.

Plus, we found time to discuss the following newsy topics:

• Cougar men's hoops alums Jarace Walker and Jamal Shead standing out at NBA Summer League and TBT with the Forever Coogs team featuring Rob Gray, Fabian White Jr, Justin Gorham and other program favorites
• Baseball loses Ross Kivett to his old employer: the University of Tennessee
• PAWDCAST HOST NEWS (*bumbumbum*)

VOTE FOR THE 2023-24 PAWSCARS HERE: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1rgtUyXtEZPo6OJdPPK5QlUPPtnC23iHKc8U60GljgQk/viewform?edit_requested=true

Twitter thread of 2023-24 Play of the Year Pawscars: https://x.com/SHPawdcast/status/1815755628817862742

We're back on our regular weekly recording pace, with the following Houston Cougar topics on the agenda:

• Introducing the nominees for our 7th annual Pawscar Awards, covering the 2023-24 UH athletics season
• Diving into Willie Fritz and the Cougar football staff's summer recruiting gains in the class of 2025
• A quick look at UH alums and current student athletes competing at this month's Paris Olympic Games

Oh hey, I guess our summer break is over. Its been a newsy last few weeks on many fronts in the world of Houston Cougar sports and the full trio of co-hosts return to discuss these topics:

• Discussing the rumored names for UH's athletic director vacancy, including but not limited to: David Fletcher, Oliver Luck, and Keli Zinn
• The bizarre decision to extend UH softball coach Kristin Vesely is finally revealed to the public at large
• Thoughts from Big 12 media days and where the Coogs were picked in the preseason poll
• Jamal Shead is a Toronto Raptor! Plus, Coogs in Summer League and TBT talk
• A trio of baseball pitchers get taken in this week's MLB Draft
• The much deserved extension for women's golf HC Lydia Lasprilla

We recap additional reporting on alleged unacceptable behavior by Houston Cougar softball head coach Kristin Vesely and the resulting toxic culture in the program under Vesely's leadership, as reported to us by players and staff members in the program and look at where UH appears to go from here with a subsequent AD change and other questions about who will even be coaching the program next year.

EMERGENCY PAWD! In a surprising and shocking move, UH leadership and Dr. Renu Khator dismissed Chris Pezman from his job as the UH athletics head honcho. We take a look at Pezman's 6-year tenure, successes/failures, what led to such a sudden and emphatic dismissal and what roles fundraising and other factors played in the decision.