Conner Weigman Wants a Texas Tech Rematch After His Guts-Out QB Show Comes Up Inches Short, But Houston Can’t Keep Putting Everything On Him To Earn It

LUBBOCK — The Last Man Out of the Locker Room heads for a group of family and friends as Houston’s two Mercedes Benz busses loudly idle and the back door of its equipment truck is locked shut with a slam. Conner Weigman will get well-deserved hugs and clasps on the back. His mom Jacqui and his dad Chad, a former Sam Houston linebacker who knows the sharpest pains in this game aren’t always physical, are veteran football parents. They know the drill. But this one isn’t ordinary.

Texas Tech 28, Houston 26. Just short of overtime. Inches — maybe one, maybe two, at most three (depending on where you think Weigman’s knee went down and far how the nose of the football is from the goal-line at that exact moment) — from pushing the presumed Big 12 favorites into a telling point OT that Joey McGuire’s team wanted no part of.

Weigman is the one carrying the ball on the decisive two-point conversion attempt, because of course he is. Who else would have the game, the chance for a huge University of Houston football statement, in his fully extended hands? UH went back to putting almost everything on Weigman again offensively in this game, calling his number again and again on designed run plays too like last season.

And it almost worked. Until it came up just short. And then UH’s last gasp onside kick, which looked like it had a real chance, just went out of bounds.

Lament in Lubbock. Just short. Barely out of reach.

Texas Tech escapes and gets to dance on into its Big 12 schedule of ease. The Red Raiders are 3-0 and done with the other three top projected contenders for the Big 12, with McGuire’s team not playing both BYU and Utah this season.

Weigman looks worn down and a little beaten up when he shuffles into the press conference after this one. But he’s no less determined. He wants another shot at Texas Tech, knowing that if Houston can make that happen it will have made the Big 12 Championship Game.

“That’s what we were saying in the locker room,” Weigman says of the possibility of the rematch every Cougar wants. “We’ve got to focus on what we’ve got left. That’s three (games played so far). So nine games left, we’ve got to go make it happen so we can see them again.”

The Big 12 should hope it’s so lucky to get Texas Tech v. Houston Volume II on December 4 in Arlington. For this is a fantastic Friday night prime time showdown with the Cougars and Red Raiders trading blows, big plays and momentum swings, daring each other to be the one who blinks last.

“Definitely, we’ll see them again,” UH defensive back Jalen Mayo says of Texas Tech.

It is a vow that will decide how truly successful this Houston football season of super promise is. The Cougars have an uphill fight to get to Arlington, and not just because Weigman and Co. have started 0-1 in the Big 12. Houston has a tougher path than Texas Tech to the Big 12 Championship Game, having to play at fellow prime contender Utah, at Kansas State and at West Virginia still.

Lament in Lubbock. Just short. Barely out of reach.

In the visiting athletic director’s box high up in Texas Tech’s Galaxy Stadium, UH chancellor Renu Khator, her husband Dr. Suresh Khator, UH believer Patrick Fertitta, Board of Regents chairman Jack Moore and athletic director Eddie Nuñez erupt with every big play and deflate after every cruel twist. Counters are pounded and knees are slapped.

This is not a game for the weak of heart. You’d better have as much resolve as Brad Pitt being dropped into the middle of the Alaskan wilderness with his dog to survive this one. For the wolves are coming.

Conner Weigman does not blink. With Houston having turned a 10-0 lead into a 28-20 deficit late in the fourth quarter, most of the Texas Tech faithful packed 60,000 strong into fireworks-happy Galaxy Stadium already think the Cougars are done. Down for the count and out.

It’s a John Elway worthy drive. It’s the stuff of football storybooks. Until it’s not. Until a twice-delayed two-point conversion attempt (first by a play clock that does not restart like it should, then by a frantic Joey McGuire timeout) comes about as close to tying it as one possibly can without doing it.

The Weigman Drive

Weigman gets the ball back with two minutes and 35 seconds to go. At his own 12-yard line. Needing to drive 88 yards for the touchdown. He’ll do it by completing all six passes he throws on the march for 72 yards and running two times for 10 more yards. With every one of those plays producing a chorus of groans from the Tech crowd. Transfer tight end Patrick Overmyer catches three of those darts, shredding the middle of Texas Tech defensive coordinator Shiel Wood’s defense. Weigman does not even need to use a timeout to do it.

It’s a John Elway worthy drive. It’s the stuff of football storybooks. Until it’s not. Until a twice-delayed two-point conversion attempt (first by a play clock that does not restart like it should, then by a frantic McGuire timeout) comes about as close to tying it as one possibly can without doing it.

“You’ve got to reach out and try and get the two-point conversion. I gave it all I got,” Weigman says. How close did he feel like he was too getting the ball across the plane of the goal-line? “I feel like I was close. I couldn’t really tell.” Weigman shrugs. What else is there to say?

Lament in Lubbock. Just short. Barely out of reach.

“That’s what we were saying in the locker room. We’ve got to focus on what we’ve got left. That’s three (games played so far). So nine games left, we’ve got to go make it happen so we can see them again.” — UH QB Conner Weigman

Willie Fritz’s team only has itself to blame in many ways. Houston (2-1, 0-1 Big 12) puts up both more passing yards and more rushing yards than Texas Tech. The Cougars win the turnover battle 2-1. They rack up 27 first downs. Yet for as many spectacular plays as Houston makes (junior receiver Koby Young’s amazing over-the-shoulder 46-yard touchdown catch where he somehow pins the ball with the crook of his arm against his helmet and still hangs on; Jalen Mayo’s acrobatic interception at the end of the half where he seems to defy the laws of physics), there are glaring missed tackles, Texas Tech receivers lost and a vital third-and-1 that is stuffed for a one yard loss — and followed by a crucial fourth-and-2 ruined by a false start.

“You play a game like that against a good quality opponent, you’ve got to play well,” Fritz says. “We played OK. Not our best.”

That’s the thing. UH pushed Texas Tech within inches of overtime without even bringing close to its A Game. That could inspire this Houston team or haunt it.

College football and the Big 12 might deserve a UH vs. Texas Tech rematch. But earning it will be anything but easy for Fritz’s team.

Houston seems to play a good stretch of this second half a half step slow. This UH offense seemingly could use a little more imagination, maybe even a quick cameo package for five star freshman quarterback Keisean Henderson when things bog down. It cannot all be on Weigman to throw the ball 38 times and carry it 13 more.

That was last season’s Houston offense. This year’s offense is supposed to be better, more diverse, with many more playmakers to lean on. The late reverse to Koby Young is broken out at the right time and it would have went for even more yards if Young hadn’t ended up getting blocked by his blocker. More of wrinkles like that please, more aggressiveness when in the lead.

Texas Tech v. Houston’s Night Of Unforgettable Images

Then again if Houston does not allow Texas Tech receiver Kenny Johnson (four catches for 113 yards) to get behind their defensive backs again and again, the offensive lull probably isn’t fatal.

“It’s not a two quarter game, it’s a four quarter game,” Mayo says. “You’ve got to play all four quarters like we did in the first half.”

UH defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong seems to live and die with every play too, the emotion’s all over his face and in every sideline jump and contortion for everyone to see, leaving us with more unforgettable images from this frantic Friday night of football. Armstrong looks absolutely spent after this one. All the Cougars do. They left so much on that field.

Lament in Lubbock. Just short. Barely out of reach.

Conner Weigman goes Elway, shows a national TV audience he may be the very best quarterback in the Big 12. One of the best in the entire country. Certainly one of the guttiest. Weigman reaches out with everything he has and comes up just inches short. His knee is down and the ball squirts out after that. Fritz is going to have the best quarterback on the field most games this season because of Weigman. That’s a huge advantage. But it cannot be the only one this Houston team has.

UH cannot stop reaching for more now.