The Talker Of The Town

Danny Davis isn't the strong, silent type. Nor is he a man of few words. When not playing quarterback for the University of Houston, he counsels youths in a drug program and he fills in as a speaker at church functions. And even when he is playing quarterback, Danny Davis talks all the time. He ribs the running backs. He slaps palms with the linemen and he flashes the soul sign, chattering all the while. There is a bit of con in him, Davis admits, but, "I believe in people and then they believe in me."

That was pretty much the game plan last Saturday: Danny Davis & Co. would have to con No. 6-ranked University of Texas to make folks believe that the Cougars deserved to play host in the Cotton Bowl as Southwest Conference champion on New Year's Day.

"We match up pretty evenly," Houston Coach Bill Yeoman said before the game. "But their Johnny (Lam) Jones is a bad news guy and their Lawrence Sampleton isn't anything less. Both can kill you with one big play. But if we can stop them, well, I think we will win."

The game was played in Austin, where the Longhorns had been beaten but twice in the last 56 games. And, sure enough, Tight End Sampleton was held to two catches, only one of importance. Flanker Jones got his hands on the ball just twice and gained only 22 yards. And when it was all over, Houston had upset Texas 10-7. Unless Texas Tech and Rice, the Cougars' last two opponents, perform miracles, Houston will win that coveted berth in the Cotton Bowl.

While it was the Houston defense that roped the Longhorns all afternoon, it was Davis who branded them. Davis is a 48.8% passer and a 30-yard-a-game runner—he is more apt to scamper from sideline to sideline than to head down-field—but it is his convincing fakes, perfectly timed pitches and shrewd reading of keys that make Houston's attack hum. With Davis in charge, the Cougars won 10 games, the SWC title and the Cotton Bowl in 1976. They opened the 1977 season by beating favored UCLA. But a shoulder separation put Davis out for the rest of the year and Houston tumbled to a 6-5 finish.

Cougar fans weren't surprised: the team has run hot and cold for years. In 1967, Houston beat No. 1-ranked Michigan State, then stumbled to three losses. In 1968, the Cougars crushed Tulsa 100-6 one Saturday, and got beat by 20 points at Florida State the next. In 1969, they opened with two losses, then whipped Mississippi State 74-0 and won nine straight. The 10-2 championship season of 1976 had followed a 2-8 clunker in 1975. "It's always something," Yeoman says. "Injuries, lack of depth. Or, when we were an independent, trying to keep everybody up, week after week."

This year the Cougars seemed to be at it again. They opened by losing to Memphis State, now a 4-5 team. They looked only slightly better in overcoming outmanned Utah 42-25. Next Houston stunned 9th-ranked Florida State, 27-21 on the road. A 20-18 squeaker over then-winless Baylor was followed by a 33-0 thrashing of unbeaten Texas A&M. "It wasn't until then that we knew we could play," Yeoman says.

Indeed, Houston had started with a whole bunch of question marks. Recovered from his injury, Davis had to prove himself all over again. Both the starting running backs were new and so were three-fifths of the line. On defense, Yeoman was counting on four returning starters, plus David Hodge, an All-America linebacker in 1976 who had wearied of football and sat out a season before returning to school this fall. Hodge gradually returned to form, and Sam Proctor, who was used sparingly in 1977, and Steve Bradham developed into certified menaces as linebackers. Safety Elvis Bradley, a starter since his first game as a freshman three years ago, was as sound as ever, and soon Yeoman's two sets of ends, tackles and noseguards were playing into shape.

The team now comes equipped with eight healthy linemen whose average weight is 248 pounds, and all of them are quick-footed, especially Hosea Taylor, a 6'5" sophomore who slimmed down from the 295 pounds he weighed last year to 250, and Leonard Mitchell, a 6'7", 260-pounder who also plays basketball for the Cougars.

Still, some critics keep harking back to Houston's on-and-off performances of the past. Others call the university "Cougar High," a jab at its academic standards. They intimate that Cougars aren't recruited, but bought.