Cougars shut out of AP Top 25 Poll despite receiving some votes

The AP Top 25 Poll has been released and the predominant schools in Texas have made the list with the Houston Cougars receiving some votes.

The poll is led by the usual suspects with Alabama at No. 1, Oklahoma at No. 2, Clemson at No. 3 Ohio State at No. 4 and Georgia at No.5.

Texas A&M ranks next at No. 6 and Texas comes in at No. 21. TCU received 40 votes and the Cougars received five, but both squads will have some work to do if they wish to crack the poll.  

The AP Poll has been part of the game since Oct. 19, 1936 and the preseason poll started in 1950 when a national group of sports writers and broadcasters voted weekly on ranking the best teams in college football.

FOX College Football took to Twitter to ask if the Crimson Tide will have what it takes to go wire-to-wire as collegiate champions.

They wrote, "Only three teams ranked No. 1 in the Preseason AP Poll have won the National Championship over the last 25 years. Will @AlabamaFTBL do it again this season?"

The Cougars have two years under football head coach Dana Holgorsen and he knows that in order to turn the program around the team must start stacking up Ws.

“Pretty much win games,”  Holgorsen said earlier this month during the American Athletic Conference’s virtual 2021 football media day. “We’ll put that at the top of the list.”

Under his leadership, the Cougars have gone 7-13 the past two years and Holgorsen said that he believes quarterback Clayton Tune has what it takes to raise his game to the next level.

Tune, a junior, has played 17 games over the past three seasons so Holgorsen will count on him to grow as signal caller.

“(Tune) has got a lot of reps logged in practice and games now so that should pay off,” Holgorsen said. “I’m not doing a very good job coaching if he’s not better in year three. We have to be better in front of (Tune) for him to be better. We’ve had, I think 20 offensive line combinations in 20 games. We finally got to a point where we got depth and got experience.”

Houston returns eight of 11 starters on offense with Tune passing for 2,048 yards and 19 touchdowns in his first year as the full-time starter last season.

On defense, the Cougars will be bringing back nine starters. With so many returning starters it's easy so see why the team is optimistic that they will make drastic improvement on last season’s 3-5 record.   

The Cougars will start the season at home Sept. 4 against Texas Tech at NRG Stadium.

RANK	TEAM
1	Alabama
2	Oklahoma
3	Clemson
4	Ohio State
5	Georgia
6	Texas A&M
7	Iowa State
8	Cincinnati
9	Norte Dame
10	North Carolina
11	Oregon
12	Wisconsin
13	Florida
14	Miami
15	USC
16	LSU
17	Indiana
18	Iowa
19	Penn State
20	Washington
21	Texas
22	Costal Carolina
23	Louisiana-Lafayette
24	Utah
25	Arizona State
SOURCE: Associated Press