No. 22 Houston scored touchdowns on each of its first 11 drives en route to clobbering visiting Southern, an FCS program, 77-6 on Saturday night.
The Cougars (2-0) didn’t let their starters play to midway through the second quarter as it was 28-0 after the first quarter and 49-0 by the half.
Houston starter Conner Weigman played just five drives and was 9 of 12 for 120 yards and three touchdowns. Reserve quarterback Keisean Henderson was 6 of 7 for 83 yards with two passing touchdowns and had a 54-yard touchdown run after initially botching the snap in the third quarter.
The Cougars had a strong ground game with 388 yards on 45 carries and six touchdowns from six different players. Koby Young chipped in three catches for 54 yards and two touchdowns.
Southern (1-2) struggled much of the day, getting only four first downs and finishing with minus-6 rushing yards. The Jaguars had 121 total yards, 79 of which came on one play — third-string quarterback Wyatt McCauley’s touchdown pass to Wydell Clark Jr. in the third quarter.
Jaguars starting quarterback Christian Johnson was 5 of 12 for 29 yards while backup Ashton Strother was 3 of 5 for 13 yards and an interception.
Weigman drove Houston to a score on its first possession when he found Patrick Overmyer from 9 yards out. Less than two minutes later, Re’Shaun Sanford II ran in a 9-yard touchdown after Southern fumbled.
Makhi Hughes punched it in from 1 yard out after another Southern fumble to make it 21-0 with 4:11 left in the first quarter. Weigman and Amare Thomas linked up for an 8-yard touchdown to make it 28-0.
In Weigman’s last drive, he hit Young for a 43-yard touchdown pass. Henderson got the same result on the next drive by connecting with Young from 7 yards out. Henderson tallied his second touchdown pass on a 20-yarder to John Hebert, increasing the lead to 49-0 with 1:36 left in the first half.
Houston had more points than Southern had total yards (40) in the first half.
After Henderson’s touchdown run in the third quarter, DJ Butler (9-yard TD) and Hebert (7-yard TD) got in the end zone to increase the score to 70-0 before Southern’s long touchdown pass.
An 8-yard run by Cougars third-string quarterback Luke Carney with 5:56 to play was the final score of the night.
