Ty Hubert Detmer is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL). He won the Heisman Trophy in 1990 while playing college football for the BYU Cougars. Detmer broke numerous NCAA records with BYU, and was twice recognized as a consensus All-American. A late-round pick in the 1992 NFL Draft, Detmer played for six NFL teams over 14 seasons, mostly in a backup role. He is currently the head Athletic Director American Leadership–Gilbert North Eagles.
Andre Trevor Ware is an American sports analyst and commentator, and a former football quarterback. He played in the National Football League (NFL), the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the NFL Europe. Ware played college football for the Houston Cougars, winning the Heisman Trophy and Davey O'Brien Award in 1989. He was the first black quarterback to receive the Heisman. In the 1990 NFL Draft, Ware was selected in the first round by the Detroit Lions with the seventh overall pick. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
Major Lee Applewhite is an American football coach and former player who is currently the head coach for the South Alabama Jaguars. He served as head coach at the University of Houston from 2017 to 2018, where he previously served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. In 2013, he was the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of Texas under his head coach as a player, Mack Brown. Prior to Texas, Applewhite served as offensive coordinator at Rice University under Todd Graham in 2006 and at Alabama under Nick Saban in 2007. He was the youngest offensive coordinator among Division I-A schools at that time.
Kliff Timothy Kingsbury is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Texas Tech, finishing in the top three in several school passing records before being selected in the sixth round of the 2003 NFL draft by the New England Patriots. He later played for other teams before entering coaching in 2008.
John Jenkins is an American football coach and former player. He served as the head football coach the University of Houston from 1990 to 1992, compiling a record of 18–15. A proponent of the run and shoot offense, Jenkins also coached professional football in the United States Football League (USFL), the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the Fall Experimental Football League (FXFL). He served as the head coach of the CFL's Ottawa Renegades in 2006, the FXFL's Blacktips in 2014 and the Hudson Valley Fort for part of 2015. During his career as a coach, Jenkins has mentored a number of notable quarterbacks such as Andre Ware, David Klingler, Jim Kelly, Eric Crouch, Kliff Kingsbury, Anthony Calvillo and Doug Flutie.
Brian Jeffrey Symons is a former American football quarterback. Symons played professionally for the Houston Texans and the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), the Frankfurt Galaxy and Berlin Thunder in NFL Europe, and the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League (AFL). He was originally selected by the Texans in the seventh round of the 2004 NFL Draft. He played college football for Texas Tech where he was a record setting passer. Symons never played in a regular season NFL game.
David Ryan Klingler is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for six years in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Houston Cougars, earning third-team All-American honors in 1990. Klingler was selected in the first round of the 1992 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, but his career was cut short by an elbow injury.
Corey Pullig is a former quarterback for Texas A&M University who went on to play professionally for the Arena Football League (AFL)'s Grand Rapids Rampage and Buffalo Destroyers.
The Houston Cougars football program is an NCAA Division I FBS football team that represents the University of Houston. The team is commonly referred to as "Houston" or "UH". The UH football program is a member of the Big 12 Conference. Since the 2014 season, the Cougars have played their home games on campus at TDECU Stadium, which was built on the site formerly occupied by Robertson Stadium, where they played home games from 1941 to 1950 and from 1997 to 2012. Over the history of the program, the Cougars have won eleven conference championships and have had several players elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, including a Heisman Trophy winner.
Tony Franklin is an American football coach, most recently serving as the offensive coordinator for the Army Black Knights sprint football team. Previously, he held the same position with the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders of Conference USA after making a move from the same position with the California Golden Bears. He announced his retirement from MTSU soon after the new year in 2021, following the completion of a challenging 2020 season.
Casey Austin Keenum is an American football quarterback for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Houston Cougars, where he became the NCAA's all-time leader in total passing yards, touchdowns, and completions. In the 2008 college football season, Keenum ranked first nationally in total offense and second in total passing yards.
Dana Carl Holgorsen is an American college football coach. He served as the head football coach at West Virginia University from 2011 to 2018 and the University of Houston from 2019 to 2023. Holgorsen has worked as an assistant coach under Hal Mumme, Mike Leach, Kevin Sumlin, and Mike Gundy.
The 1989 Houston Cougars football team, also known as the Houston Cougars, Houston, or UH, represented the University of Houston in the 1989 NCAA Division I-A football season. It was the 44th year of season play for Houston. The team was coached by third-year head coach Jack Pardee. Serving as offensive coordinator was John Jenkins, who succeeded Pardee as head coach following the season. The team played its games off-campus at the Astrodome, which had recently received upgrades to seat 62,439 spectators. These Cougars boasted the first squad to have a 4,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard rusher, and 1,000-yard receiver in FBS history, finishing the season ranked as No. 14 by the AP Poll. Junior quarterback Andre Ware won the Heisman Trophy and Davey O'Brien Award following the conclusion of the season. Under probation by the NCAA from rules violated in prior seasons, Houston was ineligible for participation in a bowl game and could not be listed in the Coaches Poll. The Cougars were also barred from live television.
A system quarterback is an American football quarterback who flourishes under a particular offensive system, specifically one that focuses on passing. The term is often seen as a pejorative, for it implicitly downplays a quarterback's talent or skill by implying that a successful offense is due to a particular scheme or that a quarterback is successful due to his employment under specific circumstances. Russ Lande of Sporting News traced the term's etymology, or at least currency, to the early 1990s, when two University of Houston quarterbacks failed to carry college success into their professional careers. First, Andre Ware, in head coach Jack Pardee and offensive coordinator John Jenkins's run and shoot offense, had a record-setting 1989 season that culminated in a Heisman Trophy. He was the seventh overall pick in the 1990 NFL Draft, but did not have success in either the National Football League or the Canadian Football League. David Klingler took over for Ware at UH and was the sixth overall pick in the 1992 NFL Draft. He too, failed to find exceptional success in the NFL.
Jason Howell Phillips is an American football coach and former player who is the wide receivers coach for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played professionally as a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons. He played college football for the Houston Cougars, earning All-American honors in 1988.
The run and shoot offense is an offensive system for American football which emphasizes receiver motion and on-the-fly adjustments of receivers' routes in response to different defenses. It was conceived by former high school coach Glenn "Tiger" Ellison and refined and popularized by former Portland State offensive coordinator Mouse Davis.
Connor Halliday is a former American football quarterback. He was signed by the Washington Redskins as an undrafted free agent in 2015. After his release for the Redskins he was signed by the BC Lions in the same year and the Montreal Alouettes in 2016 but both teams released him after two days. He played college football at Washington State. Halliday is tied for first on the NCAA Division I FBS single-game passing yardage record with 734 yards, which he set in a losing effort versus Cal in 2014.
Tyson Helton is an American football coach and former quarterback, who is the current head coach of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. He played college football at Houston from 1996 to 1999. He previously served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Tennessee (2018), quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator at USC (2016–2017), offensive coordinator at Western Kentucky (2014–2015), and as an assistant at Cincinnati, UAB, Memphis, and Hawaii.
The 1990 Houston Cougars football team represented the University of Houston during the 1990 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Cougars were led by first-year head coach John Jenkins and played their home games at the Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas. The team competed as members of the Southwest Conference, finishing in second. Due to NCAA sanctions, Houston was ineligible to be invited to a bowl game and was banned from being ranked in the Coaches Poll. The Cougars lost only once in the season, to eventual SWC champions Texas, and were ranked 10th in the final AP Poll of the year. Their last regular season game was played in Tokyo, in the Coca-Cola Classic.
Ben Arbuckle is an American football coach and former player who is the offensive coordinator for the Washington State Cougars football team.
