No. 20 Houston finds its way back into orbit, rallies past UCF in second half

It took No. 20 Houston nearly three quarters to score its first points in Saturday’s game against UCF.

Then the Cougars found their way back into orbit.

A career-high three rushing touchdowns from fifth-year quarterback Conner Weigman and 27 unanswered points propelled Houston to a 27-17 comeback win at TDECU Stadium.

At halftime, with the Cougars down 10-0, coach Willie Fritz focused on Houston’s first-half mistakes, namely its three empty trips to the red zone that left the Cougars scoreless at halftime for the first time since facing Iowa State in 2024.

“There’s only one bright spot,” Fritz said. “We got another 30 minutes to play.”

In the final minutes of the third quarter, senior JACK Latreveon McCutchin’s 17-yard interception return to the UCF 2-yard line became a launch point.

“I feel like that play right there kind of shifted it towards our end for the better,” he said.

With a yard of help from senior running back Makhi Hughes, Weigman, who threw for 239 yards and rushed for 50 despite playing sick, reached the end zone to cut Houston’s deficit to three.

Facing the deficit, McCutchin wantned to avoid spreading a different kind of sickness. 

“Misery loves company and I just feel like if we’re all on the sideline pouting and frowning, it’s kind of like a sickness. It’ll impact everyone,” he said.

After the defense forced a three-and-out and the Cougars ventured back into UCF territory, it was once again Hughes and Weigman near the end zone who each chipped in a yard to get Houston its first lead of the day.

Before Saturday, FBS teams were 3-130 when trailing by 17 or more points in the second half this season. 

Houston defied gravity.

“Everyone’s happy and smiles and giggles when you’re up and you’re beating somebody, but when you’re down it takes a real soldier to sit there and fight and keep going until the clock hits zero,” McCutchin said. 

On consecutive second-quarter drives Houston turned the ball over on downs at the UCF 3-yard line, before junior tight end Patrick Overmyer fumbled into the end zone on the next trip down.

“Most of the time we were just hurting ourselves, which is even more frustrating,” Overmyer said. “My turnover in the red zone was unacceptable. You can’t do that, but we knew we were all right.”

Houston’s scoring drought eclipsed 41 minutes before its first two scores of the day came just over two minutes apart, putting the Cougars on a comeback trajectory that improved their record to 4-1 on the year and 1-1 in Big 12 play.

The Cougars wore a hand-painted helmet collection featuring each of the eight planets, the Sun and dwarf planet Pluto. Weigman wore the lone Pluto helmet, while the rest of the team donned the other parts of the solar system.

Junior kicker Jonathan Dimas, who made a 40-yard and career-long 46-yard field goal, was one of the players representing the Sun.

“Without the sun, it’s pretty bad for the galaxy,” he said.

Even Pluto had its place in Houston’s comeback.